Caspian, daughter of Poseidon
by AFincorporated
Summary: Percy and the rest of the seven received a message from a satyr in New York City that was sure he had found a child of one of the big three. They immediately rushed off to find them, and when they get there things may not go as planned when they discover the new demigods strange powers...
1. Chapter 1

**Authors Note: hi, this is an F story. I don't own any of the characters from Camp Half Blood like Chiron and Percy and Annabeth. All I own is the idea and Ella and Casper 'cause I thought them up. I hope you enjoy.**

Chapter 1~

It had started three days ago, when Chiron had received a message from a satyr in New York City, who was certain that he had found a child of Poseidon _and_ a child of Apollo, and had requested backup. Finding another Poseidon Half-Blood was not how Percy wanted to spend his weekend, but nobody asked him.

And that was why he was sitting in a cafe with Annabeth, Piper, Jason, Leo, and Hazel. Frank hadn't been able to get away from Camp Jupiter on such short notice, and Calypso and Nico had declined.

"So, how much longer do we have to wait?" Leo was fidgeting with nuts and bolts. Percy couldn't blame him. After all, they'd been there for an hour.

"Her school should get out in ten more minutes. We can intercept her on her way back to her orphanage." Annabeth said, checking her watch. "And theres another demigod with her remember."

"How can we be sure she's a Poseidon kid?" Piper asked, licking her ice-cream spoon. "Its not like there's a definite test for this sort of thing."

"We'll just have to see." Jason said.

"We should head out. Her protector said she always take a certain route home, and its a few blocks away." Annabeth slid out of their crowded booth.

"Finally." Leo mumbled, but not loud enough for Annabeth to hear. he shoved his pipe cleaners in his pockets and climbed out as well. Reaching into his pocket, Percy grasped riptide like a lifeline. They had come prepared for a fight, after all, three big three kids (Percy, Hazel, and the new one) would send out a serious smell.

They all filed out of the cafe, Leo pausing to grab a mint out of a bowl on the counter.

The others moved ahead of Percy, who was wrapped up in his own thoughts.

"Percy?" It was Annabeth. "Are you okay?" They walked a bit behind the others.

"I'm fine." Percy gave her a weak smile. She just raised an eyebrow, because she knew something was wrong. "I just…. I'm not sure if I want a sister. I was happy with the way things were." Annabeth nodded.

"Yeah. But give her a chance, okay? You might be really happy with a sister, and its not her fault." Percy nodded.

They jogged to catch up with the others. We waited on the corner a few blocks from her school. A few minutes later we heard a faint school bell ring, and three kids came down the street towards us a minute or so later. And one of them had the unmistakable odd walk of a satyr pretending to be human. He had dark skin, curly black hair underneath a baseball cap, and converse high-tops.

The girl to his right had bubble gum pink hair to her shoulders, with streaks of red, blue, and green in it, like she was trying to make up for the lack of color in her bleached school uniform. She had a pixie smile, freckles, and green eyes.

The girl on the other side of her had wavy black hair to just below her ears, and wore a red ski cap. She had sea green eyes like Percy's, and a broken nose. She wore a school uniform too, but her tie was missing, and she had on a denim jacket over it. She was splashing in puddles on the sidewalk, splashing her friends.

"Would you please stop doing that?" Her satyr said as they got closer. The black haired girl shrugged.

"I like getting wet." But she stopped.

They reached the demigods on the corner. Annabeth was about to say something, when a hydra burst out of the nearest alley and sped towards them. Multiple things happened at once. The demigods pulled out their weapons, the two new demi gods looked shocked as their satyr dragged them back. The black-haired girl swore like a sailor, and the rainbow head's jaw dropped.

Percy rolled to avoid a fire blast from one head, while Leo ran headfirst into it, swinging his hammer into one of the monsters eyes. Hazel and Annabeth dove behind a trashcan just in time, while Jason lifted Piper and they buzzed around the things many heads.

"What is that thing?" The black haired girl shouted, pulling a swiss army knife out of her pocket, even though it wouldn't do much good.

"A hydra! Get down!" Her satyr tried to pull her back, but at that moment the hydra swung one of its heads and knocked Jason and Piper out of the sky.

"We have to help!" She said, pulling free of her satyr, followed closely by rainbow head. Rainbow head ran over to help Piper and Jason, while the black haired girl barreled straight towards the monster.

She dodged two fire blasts, and drove her swiss army knife into one of the monsters necks, or tried to. It wasn't celestial bronze or imperial gold, so it passed right through the monster. She ran backwards to where rainbow head was helping Piper stand.

Meanwhile, the others were having slightly better luck. Percy cut off one of the things legs and it roared in pain. Leo shoved Annabeth out of the was of a fireblast just in time, and Hazel nearly got flame broiled on the other side of the thing. The satyr joined Piper, Jason, rainbow head, and the blackhaired girl in an alley out of the line of fire.

"How is that thing not hurt? My knife went right through it!" The black haired girl looked fine, but frustrated.

"Its not celestial bronze." Jason told her. He was leaning heavily on the side of the building next to him, and had a huge bruise forming over his eyebrow. "Take mine." He handed her his sword.

"No! Get back here!" The satyr shouted, but she was already back in the fray with Jason's gold sword. She was faster then the group in the alley had ever seen. She dodged a fireblast, rolled to the side, and grabbed a hydra head as it swung past her. She flipped up and landed on its neck, and running up its neck she leaped through the air, and brought the sword down into the monsters back right over its heart. It exploded into golden dust, and she landed…. Well, not gracefully. She stumbled and dropped the sword, leaning against the telephone pole.

"Caspian?" Rainbow head called, she and the satyr running over to the black haired girl, whose name was apparently Caspian.

"Her name is Caspian?"

"Apparently."

"I'm fine." Caspian mumbled. "Just lightheaded."

"And you could have been worse! You ran right into a fight with no experience, and you could have killed!" Her satyr was scolding her now. "They had it under control! Why in the world did you think that was a good idea!?"

Caspian wasn't really listening to him. She was walking back over to Piper and Jason with rainbow head.

"Are you okay?" She asked Jason and Piper politely. "You took a nasty fall there."

"We're fine." Piper said. "Where did you learn to fight like that?"

"I never learned. Oh, and I forgot to ask," She gave them a sweet smile, like a kid about to ask for candy. "Who are you guys? What are you doing here? And what was that thing?"

"I'm Annabeth." Annabeth and the others had joined them. "This is Leo, Hazel, Percy, Piper, and Jason. Who're you?"

"Caspian. Call me Casper."

"I'm Flint." The satyr tipped his cap to us. "Protector, certified."

"I'm Aello." Rainbow head waved. "Call me Ella."

"Aello. That means 'strong wind' in Greek." Annabeth said casually. Ella nodded, but she looked confused.

"Sure. Strong wind. Totally." Ella said. Percy had to bite the inside of his mouth to keep from laughing. Ella obviously had no idea what Annabeth was talking about. "But why are you here? And why was that thing attacking us?" Ella obviously wasn't satisfied. "And why did Caspers pocket knife go through it? And why-"

"We'll explain everything when we get to camp. I promise." Percy glanced over his shoulder. "We should go before anything else shows up though."

"What camp?" Ella asked.

"I said we'll explain later." Percy said, rolling his eyes. Ella glared at him.

'_Yeah. Their already getting along great.'_ Annabeth mentally moaned.

It took a while, but they finally convinced Casper and Ella to go with them to camp. They were back at camp in forty five minutes, and walking down half-blood hill towards the big house. "Is that rockwall on fire?"

"Yes." Jason said. "And you talk too much. You're giving me a headache here."

"Sorry." Ella laughed. "I'm just excited. Do we get to swordfight?"

"Yes. Now come one. You should meet Chiron."

"Who?"

"Please. No more questions."

"Does she always talk this much?" It was Percy.

"Pretty much." I nodded. "Unless shes eating, sleeping, or underwater." Percy smiled. It was the first time I had seen him do so.

"I think she's about to make Jason's head explode." I laughed. "Are you both from New York?"

"No." I said. "Ella is, but I'm from Chicago. I moved there with my mom when I was eight."

"Where's she now?"

I looked down at my shoes. I twisted the blue diamond and silver ring I always wore. It used to be my mom's. "I don't know. She disappeared."

"Oh. Sorry."

"S'okay."

At that moment, a tremor went through the ground, like a tiny earthquake. "What was that?" I asked, but Percy too looked worried.

We rushed to the big house even though the tremor had stopped quickly. A…. Horse guy met us. Straining my memory, I remembered that he was a centaur, half horse half man.

"I am Chiron." There were worry lines creased into his forehead, as he glanced at the ground nervously. "We have much to discuss."


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello, this is F speaking. Just here to say that I do not own any characters from PJO, or from HoO. All I own is the idea and Casper and Ella. I hope you like it, theres no post on sundays, goodbye.**

Casper's POV

"I don't think that we need to wait too long to discover your parentage." Chiron was saying. "Ella's father will no doubt claim her soon, but your father…." He gave me a funny look, like I was a complicated puzzle. He tilted his head a little bit to one side, so little that I doubted he knew he was doing it.

"What?" I asked, tilting my head to the same angle. He quickly sat up straight.

"The satyr who found you, Flint, sensed a particular scent around you-"

"Thanks."

"Thats not what I meant. He sensed an aura of power around you when he first met you. We think that you're one of the children of the big three gods, Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon." He had already explained the whole greek gods are real thing.

"Which one though?" I asked. He shook his head.

"My guess is as good as yours. Hopefully you'll be claimed-" Suddenly a glowing symbol appeared over Ella's head. It looked like a staff, with two snakes wrapped around in. It was the symbol of Hermes, god of thieves and travelers.

"Ah, now that is claiming." Chiron said. Ella and I were talking to Chiron on the porch of the big house. All the others had left to train. "Will!" Chiron called over a tall blonde guy with a bow and arrow on his back. "Will, this is Ella and Casper."

"Hi." I said.

"NIce ta meetcha!" Ella said cheerfully.

"Hi," Will said, smiling. "Welcome to camp half blood."

"Will, Ella has just been claimed by Hermes. Would you please show her around."

"Course." The two sped off, Ella talking a mile a minute.

"As for you, I expect you'll be claimed soon. for now I think you should stay in the big house. I promised the Hermes cabin that only children of Hermes would stay there from now on." Then he showed me all around camp, which all looked pretty cool.

The next few days were really fun. I slept in a small cramped room on the second floor of the big house. The walls were yellow and there was a patchwork quilt on the bed, with a window overlooking the lake. I took every different class, and I could tell Chiron, Percy, Annabeth, and a few other counselors were watching me, trying to figure out my father.

I wasn't good at a lot of the stuff. I did okay in foot racing and I was a good canoer, but archery? No good at all. Wrestling would have been okay, but the Ares councilor, Clarisse, was really tough and she taught all of the wrestling classes. Annabeth taught me and Ella Greek. The thing that puzzled me was that I wasn't good at monster fighting. I wasn't expecting to be amazing my first class, but after the Hydra I had expected to be at least fine. The strange burst of manic adrenaline that had pushed me towards the Hydra was gone.

Every Time I raised my sword against Percy, who taught sword fighting, I had to take a deep breath and tell myself that I was safe: If I stayed calm, I could fight better. But that almost made me worse.

One night about a week after I arrived at camp, I was walking back to the big house after the campfire, and I heard people talking in the pavilion. I'm not the sort of person who usually eavesdrops but it was Percy, Annabeth, Clarisse, Piper, Hazel, Jason, and Chiron talking, and I was really curious.

"Still not sure." Jason said. "But I don't really think so. She would have shown some of the signs by now."

"Same here." Hazel said. "But that weird mini earthquake the day she came might have been a sign from Hades or Pluto."

"Not Pluto. Not any roman god, I think. She's good at Greek, and I gave her a few latin phrases yesterday and she had absolutely no idea what they meant." That was Annabeth.

"Definitely not an Ares kid." Clarisse was saying. "She doesn't have the muscle."

"She doesn't seem like a daughter of Poseidon. She can't swim very well, and I asked her the other day what a couple of fish were talking about, and she looked at me like I was a nutjob."

"Well, then." Chiron sighed. "We just have to keep searching. Her father has to show himself event-"

"Thats not right!" Percy sounded mad. "She's fourteen, a year over the deadline, and she's been here for a week."

"I know, Percy." Chiron sounded tired. "I know. It can't be long now." I sprinted back to the big house before I could hear anymore. They were talking about me, I knew it. My father wouldn't claim me. Chiron and the counselors were stumped. I was all alone, again.

LINE BREAK HERE PEEPS

I nervously adjusted my armor, and fiddled with my sword. The sword was unbalanced so that whenever I fought with it I felt like I would drop it at any given moment. It was the night of capture the flag, and I was on the Athena cabin's team. They were counting me as part of the Hermes cabin, because I was still undetermined. Also on our team was Aphrodite, Dionysus, Zeus, and Poseidon, which pretty much meant Jason and Percy. The other team was lead by the Hephaestus cabin, with Ares, Hades, and Apollo.

I wasn't sure who was going to win. They were bigger, and they had Ares and Hades, which meant Nico. He was a good fighter, and when he had started playing capture the flag about five months ago (according to Percy) he had started summoning legions of the dead for whichever team he was on. This made it totally unfair, so Chiron declared a new rule that he could summon three dead warriors only.

Of course, we had Jason and Percy, which made up for all of that, and Annabeth, which gave us the upper hand. Or so I hoped.

"This is going to be so fun!" Ella squeaked excitedly. The Aphrodite cabin had been helping her with her hair the day before, so it was cut evenly, neatly combed, and bright blue with red streaks. The Aphrodite kids hadn't been happy about the blue, but she had insisted on it. My stomach was churning with anxiety.

"Fun's the word." I mumbled sarcastically. At that moment, a tremor ran through the ground underneath the entire camp. Ripples of nervous talk spread through the campers. There had been a lot of weird seismic activity lately, and nobody could explain it.

Our teams split up, the Hephaestus team, carrying a large bronze colored flag with a fiery hammer on it went one way, and our team, with a tall white flag embroidered with a silver owl. Ella and I walked side by side behind Percy and Annabeth, who were leading the group.

Annabeth started sending groups of people off in different directions. Ella and I went right up to the border line (the creek) with Piper and a black haired Aphrodite girl who Piper called Drew. She wrinkled her nose at Ella's hair, and gave me a scornful look. I didn't like her at all. Percy and Annabeth ran off with the flag in the opposite direction.

"Why did Annabeth send us out here?" Ella asked. "Its not like we're the best fighters on the team, and we're not bad enough that nobody would take us seriously."

Piper shrugged. "Annabeth told me her plan. They have guards on the left flank, and the larger group of fighters is going to draw the enemy away on the right flank. Then we're going to run up the center, fight past the flag guards, grab the flag and run. Easy."

"Yeah." I sighed. "Depends on your definition of easy." At that moment, a conch horn blew somewhere in the trees, and far off to my right I heard the sounds of fighting.

"Annabeth will send us the signal when-" From behind us a light flashed in the woods like a flashlight. "Oh, theres the signal. Run!" We sprinted through the woods, jumping the creek and dodging the occasional pair of battling demigods. We reached a giant mound of boulders that Drew and Piper called Zeus's fist.

The flag was perched at the top, and Nico di Angelo, Clarisse, and a dead roman warrior guarded the base. We ducked behind a tree.

"How will we get past them?" Ella whispered nervously.

"I have an idea." Piper whispered. "Drew you're our distraction, head over there and draw them away." Drew scowled at being commanded to do anything, but snuck away through the underbrush. "When at least one of them has gone after Drew," Piper whispered. "We'll attack. Ella and I will fight, and Casper, you're the best climber. Get to the top, get the flag, and run." Ella and I nodded.

"Oh!" Drew shrieked from about twenty feet to our left. All three guards turned to look. Drew had tripped over a fallen tree root. She was sprawled on the ground, and her sword had disappeared. Either she was a very good actress, or she actually did trip.

Clarisse barreled off towards her, and we burst out of the bushes, sprinting towards Zeus's fist. Ella was a much better fighter then me. She drew her sword and swiped at Nico, nearly hitting him. Piper battled the zombie knife against spear. I ran past them to the base of Zeus's fist.

'_Find a handhold and just start climbing.' _I remembered Chiron saying. I tossed off my heavy helmet and dug my toes into a tiny indent in the rock, lifting myself up and reaching up again with my hands.

In only a minute I was practically at the top, but below me things weren't going as well. Piper had finished off the zombie, but Clarisse was back and things weren't going well. Ella was holding her ground against Nico, but he was slowly pushing her back.

I turned back to the stone in front of my face and felt around with my feet for a foothold, but a gust of wind slammed into me, and I slipped. Hanging on with only my fingertips I swore under my breath and finally managed to find a foothold in the stone. Heaving myself up further I rolled onto my back on the top of the fist, gasping for breath, heart pounding.

Far below me, Pipe cried out. Leaning over the edge I saw her on the ground clutching her stomach. Clarisse's spear sparked with electricity. On the edge of the clearing was a few more fighters, and they weren't on our team. I felt a spark of panic, and far below the ground started to shake.

I clutched the flag for support as the stack of boulders began to sway. A full army of kids were gathering at the clearing, enemy fighters who were being pushed backwards by our forces.

We didn't have much time, and the pillar of rock was really swaying now, a few feet from side to side. I lifted the flag and stood. There was no way I could get past the crowd below. '_If only they never got to us.'_ I wished silently, fear anxiety spiking in my stomach.

Far below, the shaking intensified, a chasm splitting in the ground, pushing the crowd of fighting campers one way, and pushing Nico, Ella, Clarisse, Piper, and the entire of Zeus's fist the other way. Everyone below stopped fighting, as they scrambled out of the way, panicked shouts spreading through the campers.

The ground was shaking, and I let out a scream as Zeus's fist tilted, and came cascading down. Everyone below scattered, and I clutched the flag tightly and braced for impact as I tumbled through the air with the boulders.

I rolled when I hit the ground, hitting my head and giving myself the heimlich maneuver with the flag.

"Ow…." I groaned, scrambling to my feet. The other campers were panicking, some staring at me, some dodging rolling boulders, some still fighting.

"Everyone, please!" Chiron's voice rose clearly, and all talk and movement ceased as everyone turned to face Chiron.

"How did this happen? There was another earthquake!" Someone called. Chiron opened his mouth to say something, but I beat him to it.

"I did this." I said blankly. Everything fell into place. Whenever the tremors started, it was because I was feeling strong emotion. The first, when I first got here, was because Percy had asked about my mom. Then again when I fell off the climbing wall, and again when I felt panic at the top of Zeus's fist.

Everyone turned to stare at me.

"How could you have done-" Ella started, but at that moment a glowing symbol appeared over my head. A greenish blue holographic trident.

"Hail, Caspian." Chiron said, as everyone started to kneel to me. I was confused, what was going on? "Daughter of Poseidon, god of the seas."


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: hi, this is F. Just here to say that I do not own any characters or places that you may recognize from the PJO or HoO series. Here's the chapter. **

Caspian's POV

I moved my stuff into the Poseidon cabin that night, which took about five minutes because all I had was some clothes and my heavy sword. I took the bunk across from Percy's, and looked around, unsure about how to feel. This was I had wanted, after all, but I still wasn't sure I was happy. Chiron had told me a few days ago about the oath that Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon swore about not having any more kids. I was proof that Poseidon had broken the oath twice, and I was sure I would get blasted any time now.

"Hey, Casper." Ella called from the doorway. Today her hair was bright green. "Chiron summoned us to the big house." I nodded.

"Hey, are you okay?" Ella asked as we walked. A few Demeter kids were pointing at me and whispering behind their hands. An Aphrodite girl squeaked and ran when she saw me coming. _No, I'm nowhere near okay._ I wanted to say, but I didn't want Ella to worry about me.

"I'm fine." I said. "Just tired." I was no daughter of Hermes, though. Ella could practically smell a lie.

"No your not." She said. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want. But I think I know, so it doesn't' really matter if you tell me." She lowered her voice as we passed the open door of the Apollo cabin. "They just need time. They thought there was only Percy. Give them time." I stared at her.

"Thats…. Surprisingly good advice." I said. "Since when do you give good advice?"

She laughed. "Since I've been spending a lot of time with the Aphrodite cabin when they help me do my hair. And my advice was never that bad!"

"You once told me that if I skipped class I would do better on a test."

"That doesn't count." We kept talking all the way to the big house. I could almost forget the sideways looks people gave me.

"Here we are." I sighed. "I wonder what this is about. I think I know what its about for me, but why did he also summon you?" Ella shrugged.

"I dunno. Come on already!" She grabbed my hand and pulled me up onto the porch where Mr. D and Chiron were sitting at the table waiting for us.

"So, you're finally here." Mr. D glared at us. "I was beginning to wonder if you ever would. Sit down Emma, you too Cassie."

"My names actually-" Ella started, but one glare from Mr. D cut her off.

"To get to why you're here." Chiron said as we sat. "It's about… A prophecy, that now makes sense to me." I raised an eyebrow. "It goes;

Death shall rise,

The heroes ties,

Broken by the witches hand,

the fates cruel,

and friends duel,

the seven again,

plus two,

daughter of earth, daughter of hawk,

combine or fight,

our fate in their hands."

**(A/N: sorry the prophecy isn't perfect rhyming, it was the best I could think of.)**

"Chiron is under the impression," Mr. D said lazily. "That you two are the 'plus two' mentioned in this prophecy."

"It makes sense." Chiron explained. "Now that Caspian has been claimed, she could be thought of as a daughter of the earth, because Poseidon is god of earthquakes. And the hawk is one of Hermes's sacred animals."

"But what are we supposed to do?" I asked. "That whole thing was about Ella and I fighting or combining, and friends dueling. Theres' nothing about what we have to do."

"I'm afraid there is." Chiron said wearily. "'Death shall rise' tells us everything we need to know." I was confused, and from her face I think Ella was too. Chiron leaned towards us, like he was about to tell us something important that he didn't want the satyrs chatting on the lawn to be able to hear.

"Before I can tell you," Chiron whispered. "You must accept your quest." He looked to me. "You have nothing to prove." But I did have something to prove. I had to prove that I was with the camp, so that people wouldn't whisper and point and avoid me anymore.

"I accept." I said, with only a seconds hesitation. "You don't have to come if you don't-" I started to tell Ella, but she grinned and interrupted me.

"I accept to!" She linked her arm with mine. "You'd get yourselves killed without me there." I rolled my eyes, but I was secretly really happy that she was coming. She was as inexperienced as me, but she'd been my best friend since we were six and we'd gotten stuck in a tree for three hours until our teacher had noticed we were missing. She didn't care that I was Poseidon's kid, and she didn't care that we might get killed.

I smiled at her. She grinned back, and she looked honestly excited.

"Excellent." Chiron said. "Then I can tell you what I think you must do." He glanced at the satyrs on the lawn. "Tartarus." A tremor ran through the camp, and the satyrs on the lawn took one look at me and ran.

"Sorry." Taking a deep breath, I slowed my heart and relaxed. The earth stopped shaking.

"Who?" Ella asked, but I knew who Tartarus was.  
>"Tartarus is the god of the deepest pit in the underworld." I said in a strangled voice. "Thats where monsters go when they die. Are you sure, Chiron?" I asked. He nodded solemnly.<p>

"Come inside. The seven have already agreed. You must discuss what to do." Ella and I stood and entered the big house living room. Annabeth, Percy, Hazel, Leo, Jason, Piper, and a husky baby-faced guy in purple and gold armor that I didn't know were waiting inside.

"Hey, guys." Even Leo didn't crack a joke.

"Hi, Leo!" Ella said happily, despite the fact that she had just agreed to go into the deepest part of the underworld, she was cheerful. "Who're you?" She asked the new guy, who introduced himself as Frank.

"You've all heard the new prophecy." Chiron said seriously. "I wish you luck on your quest, and suggest that you leave tomorrow morning. We all agreed, but wanted to talk before we went to bed.

"How do you get into the underworld?" I asked.

Annabeth and Percy looked miserable. They sat together on the loveseat, holding hands. "There's an entrance in California." Annabeth said. "We've gone that way before, but Percy says there's another entrance in New York."

Percy nodded. "Yes, there is, but its a side entrance, and Hades sealed it after I got in that way. We'll probably have to go the long way, to Los Angeles."

I choked on my lemonade. "The entrance to the underworld…. Is in Los Angeles." Ella gave me a sideways concerned look. She was the only one I had ever told about my experiences in Los Angeles, so she was the only one who knew about why I didn't want to go back.

"Are you okay?" Hazel asked.

"Fine." I said, trying to lie as convincingly as possible. Suddenly, the house started to shake.

"Earth!" Leo laughed. "Worlds most accurate lie detector!" Taking a deep breath, I calmed down enough to stop the shaking. Everyone was looking at me with accusatory expressions.

"Really," I said, keeping calm the entire time. "I'm fine. Just not where I expected the entrance to the underworld to be, thats all." When the earth remained calm, they seemed to believe me.

We talked more about how we would get there. Apparently there was a airplane pilot, a veteran of the legion, who had offered to carry Frank and the rest of us to Los Angeles.

The next morning, I woke before the sun, nervous about the quest. Percy was still snoring on his bed, and I didn't want to wake him, so I tiptoed into the bathroom and got dressed in jeans, my denim jacket, and black t-shirt.

I left the cabin barefoot, and wandered the silent camp, lost in thought. I found myself sitting on the edge of the dock, with my feet in the water.

"Good morning. Didn't expect to see you up this early." Ella said behind me, plopping down next to me with her knees under her so her feet didn't go in the water. "Are you okay? Ever since they said we were going to Los Angeles, and I know about how you…."

"I don't know." I sighed. "I have to go back. I have to. But I think that me being there might be worse then if I stay. I'm just worried that Aliah and her gang will find us." I shuddered involuntarily. "I don't want everyone to know about this. But I'm scared of what will happen if I don't tell them."

Ella nodded. "I know. We have to hope for the best."

"Easy for you to say. You don't have a nefarious demigod crimelord who's sworn to kill you if you return to her city."

"I feel bad for pretending this whole gods thing is new to us." Ella said. "You told me all this about a month ago, and asked me to not tell anybody that we knew."

"I'm sorry." I said. "I never should have made you promise that. It wasn't…. Very considerate of me. But I thought they would kick us out if they knew I used to…."

"Yeah."

"Hey!" We both jumped and almost fell into the water. "Sorry!" Percy had run up behind us. He put a hand on each of our shoulders to steady us. "Didn't mean to startle you. We have to head out."

LLLLIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNEEEEEEEE BBBBRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEAAAAKKKK

Ella's POV

Four and a half hours later, we were somewhere over Utah, when the plane jerked to one side like it had been punched.

Percy sat frozen clutching the armrests so hard that his fingernails cut into the cushioning.

"We're gonna die. We're gonna die. We're gonna die." He muttered over and over, while Jason stumbled over to a window to see what was going on.

"It's okay Percy!" Jason shouted over the howling winds rushing past the plane. "Its just some venti!"

"How is that okay?" Percy screamed, pale.

"Help me get the cargo bay door open!" Jason shouted. "I can go out there and kill them!" Piper and I struggled over to help pry the doors open. The pilot had struck his head when the plane tipped, and was out cold. Annabeth and Leo were trying to wrestle control of the plane.

"I can do this Annie!" Leo shouted to Annabeth, grabbing the controls from her. "I can fly!"

The plane leveled out somewhat, and we finally managed to get the door open. The winds whipping past the out of control plane blasted Piper and I back into the opposite wall, as well as smashing Hazels head hard against the wall. Frank managed to catch her, but he too was struggling against the winds.

Meanwhile, Jason jumped out of the plane, sword high. I'm not really sure what happened outside the plane, but inside it was chaos. Leo and Annabeth struggled to control the plane. Percy and Casper were hunched on the floor, hyperventilating. Hazel was unconscious, being shielded from the winds by Franks large frame. The others were being pressed back at the behind of the plane by the raging winds. I was struggling the cockpit.

"Let me!" I shouted, pushing past them and trying to grab the controls from them.

"How do you know how to fly?!" Annabeth shouted.

"My mom was a pilot!" I shouted. "Give me the controls!" Leo immediately handed over the joystick. I tightened my grip on it, and adjusted it's angle. I snatched the pilots head set and put it on, toggled a few switches, and leveled out the plane. "Close that door!" I shouted, the second Jason tumbled in looking dazed, covered in scratches and bruises. "Close it before the pressure-" Annabeth, Piper, Frank, and Leo, converged on the door and slammed it shut. I let out a sigh of relief.

"We're good." I sighed, flipping another switch. "As long as-" I just had to say it. Apparently, Jason had missed a venti, because at that moment one of the engines exploded. And suddenly we were freefalling through the clouds at terminal velocity.

"Do something!" Annabeth screamed in my ear. "Do something!"

"Can't!" I screamed, clutching the joy stick. "That engines totaled! There's no way in Hades I can fly this plane!"

"Are there parachutes?" Frank shouted.

"Are you kidding? We're demigods! Our luck is never good enough that theres parachutes!" Leo's voice was an octave higher then usual.

"Theres four at the back!" I shouted. "Not enough!" Annabeth was smart even when plummeting to her death.

"Leo, grab Hazel and take the first! Your lightest, one may be able to hold you both!" Frank helped Leo strap himself and Hazel in, then shove the door open and jump. "Frank, you're on the next! Jason fly Piper!" They did as she said, diving out of the plane to relative safety. There were only two parachutes left, and four of us. "Percy! Take Casper! I'll go with Ella."

"We're to heavy to-" I started, but Percy was already putting on the parachute. Percy expanded the parachute and Casper, trembling visibly, sat on him piggy-back style as they jumped. Annabeth slid on the parachute, and gave me a piggy-back.

We jumped out of the plane, only just above treetop level.

The chute just managed to slow us before we landed on a rocky slope. I let go of Annabeth as we tumbled down the rocky incline, feeling stones dig into my arms and legs, hitting my head several time as we fell.

I landed on top of something hard. I could hear my friends voices somewhere, but I was so woozy that I couldn't stand up to find them.

"Casper…." I called out feebly. I couldn't even lift my arms, my head was throbbing so badly. "Over…. Here." I heard shouts and footsteps. "Cas…."


	4. Chapter 4

**authors note: this is F speaking. I don't own any characters or places that you may recognize from PJO and HoO. Also, thanks so much everybody who favorited or followed this story! I'm flattered. Sorry I left you on a bit of a cliffhanger. On to the story!**

Casper's POV

I sat on Percy's back like a toddler as he jumped out of the plane. The wind whistled past my ears as we dropped like stones for a few seconds before the chute expanded fully above us and we slowed. We landed on a rocky incline, at the same moment I looked up and saw Annabeth and Ella jump.

We probably would've fallen all the way down the hill if not for the parachute getting caught on a boulder and snagging us. I could see the others at the bottom and to the right.

"There!" Percy gasped, cutting through the last cord connecting us to the chute. "Lets wait for Annabeth and Ella and then head down to the others. Looks like Hazel's awake now, too." I nodded and struggled to my feet.

Just then, Annabeth and Ella landed, and they weren't quite as lucky as we had been. They landed on the steepest part. Annabeth rolled for about ten feet before the chute she was wearing caught. Ella tumbled all the way down the hill until slamming into a tree at the bottom. She didn't get up.

"Ella!" I gasped, starting forward, but Percy caught my arm.

"The others have spotted her, we have to help Annabeth." Percy said urgently, and the two of us moved as fast as we could towards Annabeth. "Annabeth!" Percy exclaimed, helping me roll her onto her back.

"Hey." Annabeth said weakly. "I'm okay." We helped Annabeth up. She was fine except for a few nasty bruises. Percy and Annabeth started down the hill, but I slung off my backpack (yes I was wearing it this whole time) and stuffed in Annabeth's parachute.

"Might come in handy." I mumbled.

"Come on Casper!" Percy called. I put my backpack back on and followed them down. Behind me, the plane landed on the rocks and exploded. The heat scorched my neck.

Ella's POV

When I opened my eyes, I had no idea where I was. Fortunately, I didn't care because Casper was leaning over me so I knew I was safe.

"Cas?" I asked. "Where are we?"

"Relax." She said, giving me a warm smile. "You hit a tree when you fell."

"Fell? Oh. Plane. Boom. Ow." She laughed, but she didn't sound particularly happy.

"We're in Sugarville." she said. "And yeah, its called Sugarville. Just a couple of farms, so nobody saw us."

I sat up. We were all sitting around a small campfire, in a cornfield. They had cleared away a patch of corn and built a fire with it. Hazel was awake with her head against Frank's shoulder. Annabeth and Percy were whispering to each other on the other side of the fire, and Leo and Jason were asleep, and Piper was on her back looking at the stars.

"Gods, I have a headache." I groaned.

"How'd you learn to fly like that Ellie?" Leo asked. "It was awesome." I blushed.

"My mom was a pilot. She took me up with her a couple of times." I shrugged.

"Besides, if I can hotwire and drive a car, then a plane is nothing. And don't call me Ellie." Casper stifled a yawn.

"You're not fooling anybody." Annabeth called to Casper get some sleep. "You guys should too." She said to the others. "Ella and Percy and I will take first watch."

They all curled up and went to sleep until it was just Percy and Annabeth awake with me. For some reason, I had a bad vibe. I got those sometimes, a bad feeling before something bad happened. Even though it was just Percy and Annabeth, I was puzzled as to why Annabeth wanted me to stay up with them.

"So Ella." Annabeth propped her head up on one hand. Her gray eyes glinted fearsomely in the flickering firelight. "What was this about a nefarious demigod crimelord who's sworn to kill Casper?"


	5. Chapter 5

**Authors Note: Sorry about all those cliffhangers! I really like writing them. I don't own any body or anyplace that you may recognize from PJO or HoO. On to the new chapter. **

**Ella's POV**

I actually considered bolting. But only for a second. They would catch up, and I didn't want to leave Casper or the others, even if it meant I had to explain all of this.

"How do you know?" I asked. My voice quivered, even though I tried to sound confident. "Did you hear us on the pier?"

"No." Percy said seriously. It was the only time I had ever seen him this solemn. "The fish in the lake told me." He said it like he thought it was obvious.

"Of course." I rolled my eyes in spite of myself. "The fish told you. I should have known."

"You're avoiding the question." Annabeth said. "Who's trying to kill Casper, and why? And why didn't you tell us you already knew about the gods when we found you?"

"I-promised Casper I wouldn't tell anyone." I said. "And I'm going to keep my word. And-"

"We're not asking." Percy said, a hint of anger in his voice. "We're out in the middle of nowhere, with a couple of possible traitors, so I'm in a kind of bad mood. For all we know, you're the ones that made the engine explode on the plane. You could be trying to sabotage our quest."

"We would never-" I started, heat rising to my face at his accusations.

"Then prove it." Annabeth said levelly. "Tell us. We're prepared to give you the benefit of the doubt, we may not even tell the others, but you have to tell us your story."

"This isn't about me." I sighed, defeated, a twinge of guilt in my stomach at telling them this without talking to Casper first. "It's about Casper, and a women named….Aliah." I didn't look up at them. Instead I stared into the fire, watching the flames as I told Casper's story.

"Casper's mom died giving birth to her. Her dad disappeared, or so she thought. She lived in an orphanage until she was nine, when she ran away. She lived on the streets for a year on her own, wandering, until she found her way to Los Angeles. There she was attacked by a gorgon. She would have been killed, but she was saved by a woman who promised her a home. Cas was young, and desperate, and lonely, so she went with her. The woman said her name was Aliah."

"The same Aliah who's trying to kill Casper now?" Annabeth asked. I nodded.

"The same." I shifted so that I was sitting cross legged. "Anyways, Aliah told Cas all about the greek gods and monsters and stuff. She- Aliah I mean- had a group of warriors, demigods, that she had recruited. So Casper started to train with them."

"That explains how she could kill the hydra the first day we met her."

"Yeah. But then, they started asking her to do things she didn't want to. She never told me what it was, she hated to talk about it. Casper rebelled against the only family she had known for years. I think she would have been twelve at this point. This group had had uprisings before, so there was a set of rules in place."

"You don't say that like its a good thing." Percy said nervously.

"It wasn't, at least not for Cas. So anyways, to be allowed to leave, she had to defeat three other warriors in three duels in a row. The first two went well. She was winning. But then Aliah, the boss, declared that she would be Cas's final opponent. Cas was outmatched, but she had to try. So she fought Aliah,and lost. She managed to escape, but she was badly injured and was now a deserter, because she had left without completing her duels. Aliah swore that if Cas ever returned to Los Angeles, she would be killed.

"She was injured, but she went as far as she could go from Los Angeles, to Chicago. But a warrior of Aliah's was on her trail, so she left after a year. She went to New York, and met me. We started school this fall, when our satyr Flint found us."

They sat quietly for what felt like forever, but could only have been a few minutes.

"Wow." Percy said. "Poor kid."

"Yeah." Annabeth said. "No wonder she freaked when we said we were going back to Los Angeles. Her life is in more danger the closer we get."

"There." I snapped. "Happy?" They jumped, like they had just remembered I was there. "Can I go to sleep now? I have a headache." They nodded, and I lay down on the hard ground. Surprisingly, I fell right asleep, despite my guilt and worry.

**Casper's POV~**

Ella hotwired a pickup truck from a farmers driveway. It was rusty, and painted the most disgusting shade of green ever. Percy had his license, so he drove, with Annabeth in the front seat navigating. There were no other seats inside the car, so the rest of us sat in a circle in the back truck.

Percy and Annabeth had been acting weird around me. Percy and I had just started to get used to each other's existence, and suddenly this morning- _bam_. He was acting overly cautious, like he wasn't sure how to act around me. I didn't know what happened, but I would worry about that later. I had to focus on the quest for now.

"It'll take much longer to get to Los Angeles without flying." Hazel said, passing a ruby from hand to hand nervously.

"Not too long, if this truck can keep up this speed. Not sure it can though." Leo said. "I glanced at the engine, and it'll probably only last us to the border of Nevada at best."

"I can just get us another one." Ella said cheerfully. "Its easy." She shifted around uncomfortably on the hard metal. "Though I'm wishing I'd snatched something with enough seats for us all."

I reached into my backpack and pulled out the bunched up parachute.

"Sit on this." I tossed it to her. "Might be more comfy." The others gaped at me.

"You took one of the parachutes with you?" Frank asked. I looked down at my sneakers.

"Well….Yeah. I thought it might come in handy so I…."

"Awesome!" Piper said. "Good thinking." I was surprised.

"Thanks." I smiled at her.

"I'm starving." Leo interrupted. "Can we stop for french fries or something?"

"I think the nearest fast food restaurant is in California." I snorted. "You could probably have some raw corn if you want."

We kept chatting for a while. I started to relax like I was among friends, not on a dangerous quest that would probably get me killed. We had just passed the border to Nevada, when something dangerous happened. I just had to think it.

The hydra a few days ago had been bad enough, and the venti were tough too. But a mob of earthborn? Seriously? Why couldn't we have some thing easy for a change?

The first earthborn scooped up a chunk of earth from the road ahead, and hurled it at our truck. Percy swerved to avoid it, so that the truck turned sideways across the road. We scrambled out of the back of the truck, drawing our weapons. Annabeth and Percy climbed out as well.

Jason flipped a coin, and it turned into a javelin. The held it up over his head with one hand, while Leo pulled out a hammer and a box of breath mints, and Piper unsheathed a dagger. As for me, I pulled out the clunky too-heavy sword I had used in capture the flag and gripped in both hands so that I didn't drop it. Ella slung her bow off her back and knocked a celestial bronze tipped arrow she crouched on the roof of the truck to get a good shot.

I hoped we looked intimidating enough to scare off the earth born, but no such luck.

An earthborn scooped up another chunk of road. It threw it at us, slamming into the ground right in front of us. We all dove out of the way, and regrouped.

"Attack?" Jason asked Annabeth.

"Attack." She sighed.

And we charged into battle.

I stabbed an earthborn with my clunky sword, spun around and slashed off the arms of the one advancing behind me. Everything was going well, until three hellhounds emerged from the cornfield and joined the battle.

"Does every monster from here to New York want to kill us?" Ella shouted, smashing her empty quiver over an earthborns head.

"Were demigods! Every monster from here to Norway wants to kill us!" Leo shouted. An earthborn heaved another boulder at me. I ducked out of the way, but it caught me on the shoulder.

"Oh, you did NOT just do that!" I screamed. "Stupid mud men!" A tremor went through the ground spreading out around me. I raised my hands, and all the earthborn froze. I made a smashing gesture with my fists and slammed the small army of monsters into the ground. They melted into puddles of goo.

"How did you…" Everyone was gaping at me.

Then I passed out.

I was dreaming. I stood in a large stone underground room. The floor was covered in five feet of sludgy sewer water. There was rows and rows of seats around the edges, like in a stadium. In the center of the room, a concrete platform was raised about twenty feet above the water, with rope fences around the border. There was a retracting wooden bridge connecting the platform to an open doorway at the same level as the platform.

Standing on the platform was a woman I recognized too well. She was tall and solid, with big muscles and shiny auburn hair. She was the prettiest woman I had ever seen, even though the gleam in her dark eyes was that of an angry animal. She had a jagged bronze sword strapped on her back. I knew from experience she could use it with cruel speed.

It was Aliah.

She was talking to a boy and girl a few years older then I was, and I recognized them too, from training. They looked almost identical. Their names were Lil and Tommy. They both had dark brown hair with identical diagonal slashes across their foreheads, and tiny birthmarks on their right cheeks.

"She's getting closer." Aliah hissed. "She's heading straight to this city. When she gets here, I want you two to capture her. Bring her to me."

"M'lady, can't we kill her ourselves? We could-"

"No!" Aliah hissed, grabbing the boy by the throught and lifting him off the ground with one hand. "She is mine. When Caspian enters my city, you shall bring her to me and I shall rip her apart." She dropped him, gasping, to the floor. "You shall form two teams. Lilian, take Marie, Will, and Jake. Thomas, take Faith, Mandy, and Herald. I want them all alive."

"Surely her friends are expenda-"

"No!" She snatched Lil by the throat. "You are one of my best lieutenants, but I will kill you if you disobey me. Do you understand? I said, do you understand?" Her voice was practically a growl.

"Yes, m'lady!" Lil choked. Aliah released her, and she scrambled to her feet clutching her throat and gasping.

"Get out of my sight." Aliah growled.

The twins scrambled out of sight, down one of the corridors.

"I am so screwed." I whispered. And then I woke up.


	6. Chapter 6

**Hi, F here don't own percy jackson characters or places blah blah blah here's the story. **

Casper's POV

"Hey," Percy was shaking my shoulder. "Wake up, Cas." I opened my eyes, gasping like I had just been underwater. "Hey, you okay?"

"No." I moaned. "I had this dream…." Percy winced. I could tell he understood about bad demigod dreams. I stood up, leaning on my brother. "Ow!" I clapped a hand to my forehead.

"What?" Percy asked worriedly.

"Headache. I'm fine." I said, but that wasn't entirely true. I was lightheaded and I felt nauseous like I was about to vomit. He gave me a worried glance.

"It can really take a lot out of a demigod when they use that much of their power at once. That was amazing, by the way sis."

"Thanks. And seriously? Sis?"

"Well you are my sister. I need a nickname for you. I like Cassie and `lil sissy too."

"Don't make me stab you."

"Sis it is, then." I snorted and rolled my eyes at him, but I didn't really mind that much. I had never had a brother before, even if he was only my half brother and I had only known him for a week. As brothers went, Percy was pretty great. "Come on, the others are looking for another car. They'll be back soon." I rubbed my head.

"How long was I out?"

"Half hour tops. Oh, here they are now." Percy pointed down the road. A school bus was coming towards us, with Ella sitting on the roof grinning like a maniac and waving at us. Behind her Leo was doing a little dance on the roof behind her.

"HI!" Ella yelled. "I GOT A BUS!"

"I can see that!" I called, while Percy burst into laughter. "Great bus!"

The bus stopped in front of us. Ella and Leo climbed off the roof and down to us. The side door of the bus opened and Annabeth's voice came from inside.

"All aboard!" Even Hazel was grinning. She waved at us from the front window. We climbed on the bus and saw that they had set up camp inside. The seven front rows of seats were missing, and the padding had been laid down into six floor beds. Annabeth was driving and Frank was snoring away on the floor. Hazel, Jason, and Piper were sitting on the remaining benches.

"Are you alright Casper?" Annabeth asked from the drivers seat. "We got the bus so you could lay down, but…."

"I'm fine." I smiled, trying to seem cheery, but I really did have a bad headache. She raised an eyebrow. "Really, I'm fine. Just a headache."

Ella sat down next to me on one of the floor beds as we started to drive and the others started arguing. "Are you really okay?" She looked at me with pleading brown eyes. She stuck out her lower lip and made it tremble a little. "You can tell me."

"Ah! No! Not the pouty face!" I said, pressing my hands over my eyes. "Fine. I can't stand the pouty face. I had a dream…." I told her about my dream of Aliah. She looked troubled.

"Thats not good." Ella sighed. "Those guys will catch us the second we enter the city." At my scared expression, she quickly smiled. "But we'll be fine. We'll be there and back and we'll never get caught."

"For a child of Hermes, you're a terrible liar."

"Oh, shut up."

In about an hour, we stopped in a small town I don't remember the name of. Leo and Jason got off and brought back fried chicken, french fries, and a salad for Piper. We ate on the road. Percy and Annabeth took turns driving, while the rest of us took turns sleeping and taking guard duty with the driver. We drove through the night, and stopped for food again the next morning in a small city. Percy and Annabeth conked out in the bus, because both were tired from driving on and off. The rest of us found a nice little cafe named **Teddies**. We fought some empousi, got take out pancakes, and returned to the bus. Annabeth and Percy were still conked out, so Piper took the wheel even though she didn't have her license yet.

We passed into California that evening.

"What's that lake called?" I asked Piper, who grew up in California.

"Lake Tahoe." She called back. "I think we should stop here tonight. We all need some sleep, and Percy and Annabeth will be starving when they wake up." I nodded.

"Theres a motel parking lot over there." We parked over three parking spaces and I went to sleep. Piper woke Leo up for his turn on watch and conked out as well.

The next morning we were woken by a hellhound. Frank, apparently, didn't like getting woken up early. He sat up, shot it, and went back to sleep. I could tell the others would be out for a while, so I slipped my shoes on and left the bus. I still had my clothes on from the day before, and my hair probably looked like I had been standing in a wind tunnel, but I didn't care. I bought a box of doughnuts with the last of my mortal money and headed back to the bus.

I was just sitting down and starting to enjoy a chocolate doughnut when a tiny metal orb flew in one of the buses windows.

"What the-" I started, but the the tiny orb snapped in half and released a cloud of pink gas. "Not…. Again…." I choked, my eyes watering from the knockout gas. I pressed the front of my shirt over my mouth, but it was no good. I slipped into unconsciousness, but not before I saw a group of kids I recognized board the bus.

"We have her m'lady." Lil spoke into her walkie-talkie. "And her friends are unconscious. Should we-"

"Leave them." Aliah's voice sounded gravelly over the walkie-talkie. "It will be fun to see if they can find our base."

"Yes, m'lady. We'll be back soon with the deserter." Lil said, and shoved the walkie-talkie in her pocket. "You lot!" She bellowed at the others. "Grab the deserter, but leave the others. Lets get back soon as possible." Two kids lifted the unconcious Caspian into a chariot. They rode off silently, leaving only a broken window, a box of doughnuts, and an empty bed to show they were ever there.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: F speaking. I apologize for all the cliffhangers, but I like writing them. Also I'm not sure if I made "Aliah" a little too evil, so please review. I don't own any characters you may recognize from the PJO or HoO series, duh. Onwards. **

Caspian's POV

"Wake up." I was laying on a hard stone floor, and the cold metal pressing into my wrists told me I was cuffed. I had a headache, and my eyes were stinging. "Wake _up_." I opened my eyes.

I was in a cell, with rows of bars instead of the front wall. Standing in front of the door were two armed guards with their backs to me, looked to be about five years older then me. Standing in front of me, inside the cell, was Aliah. She wore a jagged sword and a smile that was just as cruel.

"Aliah! Where am I?" I gasped, scrambling away from her. I knew I was acting like a coward, but I didn't care.

"You're in the Sanctuary."

"Stay away from me!"

"Can't do that. You should have thought of your fears before you ran." Aliah growled. "Now get up." I stood. "Follow me." I walked behind her. At a turn in the hallway, I spotted a chance. I ran down the hallway, but didn't make it five steps before I felt Aliah's sword at my throat. "Do not attempt to run. You've only lived this long because I want to humiliate you in front of the rest of my troops by killing you in a duel." I nodded.

The guards came up the hallway and one grabbed each of my arms and pulled me down the hall. I tried to look defiant, but thats not easy when your hair looks like you just rolled out of bed and you're being dragged down a hallway in handcuffs. If I was Percy I would bust out the magic sword and attack, or if I was Piper I could convince my enemies to let me go, or even invent a machine to pick the locks for me if I was Leo. But I wasn't, I was Casper, and I couldn't do anything.

They led me into the dueling arena, the same room I had seen in my dream.

"Do you remember this place, Caspian?" Aliah asked, but her voice was still cold and dangerous. "We dueled here, and you lay on the ground beaten and begged for my mercy."

"I seem to remember it differently." I said cooly. I was not about to let her get to me. "I remember defeating your guards and escaping your compound."

"You are as childish as ever, Caspian." She said. "But know that at sunrise tomorrow I shall duel you again." I winced, but tried to hide it. "That does not have to be the way it is. You could join me, help me capture your friends, and I might let you live."

I clenched my fists and teeth, straining forward against the guards, I wanted to slap her so much. "Over my dead body."

"Very well." she scowled. "Guards! Take her back to her cell!" The guards dragged me away.

Ella's POV

The sun woke me up that morning. I rolled over to see the bed next to mine, where Cas slept. She wasn't there. I sat bolt upright and tried to struggle to my feet but my blanket was knotted around my feet. Literally. I was tied up with a torn bedsheet.

"Hey! Wake up guys!" I yelled, and everyone else woke up.

"Ahh! Marshmallow people!" Leo yelled. I gave him a funny look as I used the tip of an arrow to cut through the sheet. "I was having a nightmare…." When we were all free of out blanket bonds, we struggled to our feet.

"Hey, where's Cas?" Percy asked.

"Thats what I've been saying! She was gone when I woke up! Someone took her!" We all went into a panic, and started searching the side streets around the lot where we parked the bus. Annabeth and I combed the bus for clues, but all we found was that one of the back windows was broken, and there was a box of doughnuts on one of the seats. Cas's shoes were missing.

"Okay," Annabeth mused. "She left, brought back doughnuts and left again, and broke the window? This makes no sense."

"Yeah." I sighed. "Where could she be?" I hated myself for it, but I started to cry.

"Hey," Annabeth said, putting one arm around me. "We'll find her. It'll be okay. Casper is tough, she can take care of herself."

"I know." I wiped my tears on my sleeve. "We should keep thinking."

"Yeah," Annabeth said thoughtfully. "You know her better than anyone right?"

"I like to think so." She smiled.

"Then think. Picture this: Casper has just woken up, and nobody else is awake. She has some money, she's probably hungry, and its a nice day out. Where would she go? Can we assume she brought the doughnuts?"

I glanced in the box. "Their all powdered sugar, so we can assume she bought them." She laughed.

"Alright, so shes back with the doughnuts, and then what would she do? Her shoes are still gone, did she leave again?"

"No." I was sure of it. "Well, she might've left again, but this window doesn't fit."

Annabeth was pacing now. "So she didn't break the window. Then who-"

"Aliah." I knew it. I felt like I was breaking into pieces like a smashed mirror. "She took her, I know it, and she left us as some kind of sick test to see if we could find them." Annabeth looked grave.

"If thats true," She said solemnly. "Then its time to tell the others about Aliah."

The others took the news surprisingly well. Nobody shouted or got mad or looked betrayed. They understood that we hadn't told them for a good reason, or at least they were really good at hiding it if they were mad. We had to focus on finding Cas.

"Where would they have taken her?" Hazel asked. "Any ideas?"

"They would have taken her to Sanctuary." The others looked confused. "Thats what their base is called: Sanctuary, though its not much of a sanctuary from Caspers description."

"Then where is it?" Jason asked.

"I don't know. Cas never told me. Its somewhere in Los Angeles, but its a big city."

"Then lets go to Los Angeles." Percy's jaw was set. He had a determined glint in his eye that I hadn't seen before. "And find her."

Annabeth drove. I sat in the back by myself. The others were scattered through the school bus. Jason and Piper were whispering at the back. Percy and Frank napped, and Hazel and Leo joked around with Annabeth while she drove. I ran my hand over a sewn patch on my leather jacket. It was the symbol of a paintbrush crossed with a lockpick.

Cas sewed it for me a few weeks after we met. By then we were best friends. Cas was a good painter, even though she was a bit embarrassed about it for some reason, and I could, as a daughter of Hermes, pick locks. She had a patch just like it on her denim jacket. The paintbrush was her, a lockpick for me. '_A symbol of friendship.'_ She'd called it.

"I'll find you." I whispered to myself. "You'll be okay. You have to be."


	8. Chapter 8

**a/n: hi, F here. I don't own any characters or places you may recognize from the PJO or HoO. Now heres the chapter. Reviews are appreciated.**

Ella's POV

It took another four hours to get to Los Angeles. By the time we got there I was nervous enough to leap off the bus the second it stopped.

"Finally!" I gasped "We're here." Los Angeles was a completely new place for me. It might have seemed nice to someone else, but all I could think about was finding Cas.

"Where should we start looking?" Piper wondered.

"We should split up. It'll be faster." Annabeth said. "Plus we'll attract less monsters."

"I'll go North." Jason said. "Piper, you want to come with me?" She nodded.

"Frank and I will go East." Hazel said.

"Leo you're with me." Annabeth said. "Percy, Ella, you should go to the West." Before they could leave, I remembered something.

"Wait, I think Cas mentioned something about where it was once." I frowned, trying to remember. "Something about…. It was underground. Thats what she said." Hazel grinned.

"I can do underground." She crouched down and pressed a hand against the ground. "Nothing around here. But theres so many sewer systems here, I can't look very far."

"I guess we'd better get back on the bus and keep going." Annabeth sighed.

A couple of hours later it was getting dark. "We should stop for the night. I'm starving, and even if we find the entrance we're all exhausted. Plus, Hazel is exhausted." Frank said. Hazel was snoring away on the floor of the bus.

"Okay." Annabeth yawned. I wanted to keep looking, but Frank had a point. We would lose a fight like this. "Coming?" Annabeth asked.

"Yeah. I'll just take first watch." I said. She nodded and went inside the bus. It was chilly, even though we were in California. I buttoned up my leather jacket and shoved my hands in my pockets. I sat on the hood of the bus. But I saw something unusual on the ground next to the bus. Crouching down, I picked it up. It was a gray button. It was off of Cas's coat.

I searched the ground. There was nothing else, but the button told me which direction they had taken Cas. I headed that way, until I came to a brick wall, one side of an alley. Nobody's been here for a while, I thought, but then I noticed that there were footprints in the thick layer of dust, that lead right up to…. A solid wall. Great.

I walked back to the bus, determined to wake the others and go see if it was a secret passage or something, but there was nothing we could do that night. Leo came out for his turn on watch in a while, and I went in and went to sleep.

THE NEXT MORNING

"I found something last night." I said through a mouthful of muffin. "I think so, at least."

"Where is it?" Percy asked immediately. "Show us." I lead them to the footprints and wall.

"See?" I said, pointing at the ground. "They lead right to this wall, but I'm not sure…."

"Spread out." Percy said to the others. "There may be a button or something to make this part of the door slide away."

We had been looking for almost an hour, and I was starting to think there was nothing there, when Hazel yelled, "I found something!" From the behind the dumpster next to the place where the footprints disappeared. We all rushed over. "See, this part of the wall has this scratch in it, and I think if I…. There!" Hazel ran her fingernail through the slit, and a large portion of wall slid away, to reveal stone steps leading down into darkness.

"Should we go in?" Frank asked nervously clutching his bow.

"Everyone armed?" Percy asked, his face showing his determination. We all nodded. I reached over my shoulder and took of my bow, nocking an arrow but not yet drawing the bow string tight. Jason unsheathed his golden sword, as did Hazel, and Piper and Annabeth unsheathed their knives. "Then we go in." Percy pulled out riptide. Leo lit his hands to light the stairs as we descended.

The stairs led down five flights, underneath the city. It would have been pitch black but for Leo's fire. When the ground finally leveled out, we were in a hallway. There were puddles on the floor, and one flickering light bulb.

I could hear voices from the end of the hallway, but I couldn't see anyone. There was door to my right, so I slowly pushed it open. Inside was another downwards staircase. We went down further, until we couldn't hear voices anymore. It led to another door, which opened into-an arena? It looked like it. There were rising rows of benches, and a raised platform over scummy water. We were in the stands, and standing on the platform was a woman.

I don't remember what happened next, but I heard a sound from the stairs, and then felt a sharp pain on the back of my head, and everything went black.

Casper's POV ~

"Wake up." I twitched. It must be Aliah back to rub in that I was a prisoner again. "Please, Cas, wake up!" I sat bolt upright.

"Ella!" I looked around wildly. "Where are you!?"

"Over here!" I crawled to the front bars of my cell. Ella and Annabeth were sitting in the cell across the hall from me. If I craned my neck I could see the others in the cells on either side of theirs.

"Thank the gods you're okay." Percy sighed from his cell."

"How are you guys here? What happened?"

"You first. What happened? We knew they took you-"

"Knockout gas! They threw it through one of the back windows. But you have to answer my questions. Why did you come down here? How did you find the entrance?" I asked quickly.

"We came looking for you, dummy!" Ella exclaimed. "We found the secret entrance but we were ambushed in that arena thing. What's that room for, anyways?" I felt like I was going to be sick.

"Its the…. Dueling arena."

"Oh."

"What I want to know is why they didn't kill us when they caught us?" Piper asked impatiently. "It makes no sense."

"Oh, I think you'll find it does." Aliah was back to check on her new prisoners.

**Ella's POV~**

It was the same woman I had seen on the platform in the "Dueling arena". She was quite pretty, with long shiny auburn hair, dark eyes, and a slim athletic figure.

"I am Aliah." Maybe the most surprising thing about Aliah was how scared Cas seemed to be of her. When she saw the woman she shied backwards into her cell, eying her warily like she might attack at any moment. She was scraped and bruised, and smeared with dirt, and her clothes were torn. To sum it up: she looked terrible. "And you are in the Sanctuary. You are my prisoners. You have been disarmed, and been made unable to use your powers. These cell bars are gold plated. You aren't getting out."

"Why are you attacking us?" Annabeth demanded. "Why are you keeping us prisoner?"

"Why, to keep order of course. If my troops see you traitors killed in a duel, they will not rise against me. Of course, it doesn't have to be that way for all of you…."

"What are you saying lady?" Leo asked. "`Cause if you think we're gonna help you, then you must be one sick nutjob. Eat fireballs!" He lit his hands on fire, and shot a blast at Aliah, but as it passed the golden bars it extinguished. "How the-"

Aliah gave him a cruel sneer. "I told you it wouldn't work. You have two options. Join me and let this one die," She pointed at the trembling Cas. "or don't join me and you'll all die. Your choice."

"I choose option C." Percy growled. "We kick your ass, free Casper, and go home safe. You have two options. Stand aside or get killed."

"You have spirit. I will give you one day to decide. Her duel-" She again motioned to Cas. "Will be tonight. Then tomorrow evening we'll start with the smallest." She gave Hazel an evil glare.

"Stay away from her!" Frank shouted, but Aliah silenced him with a sneer.

"Silence son of Mars!" Aliah shouted. "You're time may come soon enough." She turned and started walking away. "I will be back for Caspian at sunset."

When she was gone, we gaped at each other.

"What do we do?" Jason asked. "We're unarmed, we can't use our powers, and we're deep underground."

"Does Aliah have any weaknesses?" Annabeth asked Cas.

"No." Cas sounded like she was close to tears.

"She has to! Everyone has a weakness!" Annabeth exclaimed. "Think!"

"I've been fighting Aliah most of my life." Cas said quietly. "Believe me. She doesn't have any weaknesses." We sat in silence.

"Anyone know any card tricks?" Leo asked. "We have a few hours."

"Seriously?"

"Hey, I'm just saying-" Leo and Piper went on like that, but I could tell they were only arguing to keep from breaking down. I couldn't see any way out. Neither could anyone else. This might be the end.


	9. Chapter 9

**Authors Note: I don't own any characters you may recognize from the PJO or HoO series. **

**Ella's POV**

Sunset came all too soon. Of course, we spent all day trying things that we didn't think would work but we tried anyways. Frank turned into an elephant, but the bars wouldn't budge. Leo's fire extinguished, Jason couldn't summon lighting, Hazel and Casper working together couldn't form a tunnel out, and even Piper's charmspeak didn't work on the guards.

Two guards came and opened the door to Cas's cell. She didn't try to fight them. She walked with them down the hallway. As she passed me, she gave me a weak smile, which turned out as more of a grimace.

Percy tried to say something as she passed him, but she cut him off. "It'll be fine." She turned down the corner, so I could just hear her call. "See you guys soon."

She had been gone a few minutes, when another guard came down our hall, carrying a boxy television. "Aliah thought you would want to watch." He grunted, pressed a button on the top, and set it down in front of the middle cell, the one I shared with Annabeth. He left quickly. On the smudged screen, an image flickered to life. It showed the dueling arena, but now the stands were full of cheering, booing, and shouting kids-some college age some as young as ten. Standing on the stage facing each other was a ripped college age guy and - Cas. At the corner of the screen was the words Caspian (Deserter) vs. Tom North (level 3) round#: 1. In a large box in the stands (draped with gold and emerald velvet) was Aliah, looking smug.

On the stage, things weren't going well for Cas.

**Casper's POV~**

Tom swung his sword. I dodged in the nick of time, cursing myself for dropping my sword. I scrambled over to it, and picked it up. It was heavy and bronze, and hard to fight with.

He came at me again, this time aiming for my neck. I raised my sword in time, deflecting the strike. I twisted up, so that his sword went spinning into the water. Of course, with my luck, my sword went with it.

The kids in the stands booed, but I ignored them. I kicked him in the stomach as hard as I could, but he caught my foot and slammed me into the side wall. I hit my head pretty hard and skinned an elbow, but otherwise I was okay.

Tom leered and leaned over, fist raised. I rolled out of the way so that his fist slammed into the stone.

"Ah!" He yelled in pain. He was doubled over next to the wall. I ran and shoved him over as hard as I could. He yelled again and landed in the water with a huge splash. The crowd screamed their approval. Aliah scowled. She motioned to a guard by the open doorway. She pressed a button and a sliding shelf of stone slid out and connected to the side of the platform.

Aliah picked up a microphone. "Winner- Caspian!" She didn't sound happy about it. "Round two- Caspian vs. Marie Brown, level six!"

I should probably explain- in Sanctuary, people's dueling level is measured from one to ten, with one being the least experienced, and ten being the most advanced. A level six would be hard, even though they weren't at the top.

**Ella's POV**

"Yes!" I cheered and did a little dance as Cas's opponent tumbled into the water. "That was awesome!" Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Cas one, Aliah ZERO!"

"Calm down." Annabeth said, putting a hand on my shoulder. "Their sending out her next opponent." We pressed our faces against the bars to see. The words at the top of the screen changed: Caspian (deserter) vs. Marie Brown (level 6) round#: 2.

It took about fifteen minutes for Cas to defeat her second opponent. This time even Annabeth cheered. But a glance back at the screen made me wince. Cas was drenched in sweat and dirt. She had a deep cut on one arm, skinned knees and elbows, and a large bruise forming over her left eyebrow.

She was in no shape to fight a third opponent.

**Casper's POV~**

I leaned heavily against the side wall, clutching my slashed arm. I couldn't fight like this. "Break!" I called to Aliah. She shook her head and picked up her microphone.

"Final round. This time, Caspian's opponent shall be…. Me!" Whispers spread through the crowd like wildfire. It wasn't often that Aliah stepped into a fight. I grimaced. The first time I had fought Aliah, I had barely escaped with my life. Now, already injured, I had almost no- _no. Don't think like that. You _have _to win this, and you can. If you don't, your friends will have to fight her too. Win._

I crouched and tore off the sleeve of my shirt, tying it around my arm. I tore off the other sleeve and used it to tie up my hair out of my eyes.

Aliah drew her sword. "Don't I get a sword?" I asked nervously.

"No." The bell rang, and she lunged with one goal: kill me. Crap, I was doomed.

I ducked, ran, dodged, rolled, and jumped to avoid the sword but she was fast and she was pushing me back. I have to get the sword away from her, I thought. The next time she stabbed at me, and turned sideways and grabbed the hilt of the sword. We struggled for a minute, until she wrenched it sideways. I stumbled back, looking down at the tear and line of blood on my stomach in shock. I couldn't feel it, but I could tell it was bad.

Aliah advanced. I backed away, clutching my stomach, which I could definitely feel now. I had only one line of defense: Aliah's pride.

"If you're so strong then why do you hide behind your sword?" I jeered, trying not to throw up from the pain in my arm and stomach. "Put it down and _really_ fight me, coward." Aliah growled, but she couldn't look weak in front of her army. She set down the sword.

She punched me in the face so fast I didn't have time to flinch. I felt my nose break.

"Too easy." She laughed. "I wanted a challenge, deserter."

I doubled over as she punched again. I kicked her in the shins, but to no effect. She shoved me and I fell on my side, scrambling to get away. She brought a foot down on my neck and I choked. The crowd roared its approval.

I had to try. I reached behind me and grabbed her foot, yanking down. She stumbled, but didn't fall, but gave me time to stand.

"You'll regret that." She snarled, and ran at me, shoving me backwards over the wall.

**Ella's POV~**

"No!" Percy and I yelled at the same time. "Cas!" I clutched the bars with trembling hands. "No…." Tears leaked out of my eyes. "No…."

Annabeth put a hand on my shoulder. "It'll be-" Her voice cracked. "Okay. I promise." I listened to the announcer on the screen.

"And its a stunning victory from Aliah there, really brought it at the end there…"

I gritted my teeth. Anger replaced my sadness. "How can they-"

"I know." Annabeth said. I squeezed my eyes shut. "Ella! Look!" Annabeth sounded ecstatic.

"What?" I asked, looking at the screen, and then I saw. _She was still up._ Somehow, someway, she had grabbed the wall as she fell. She slung one foot over, then the other, and stood.

**Casper's POV~**

I stood. I had to win. There was so much adrenaline in my system that I felt like I must be floating. I couldn't feel my injuries. I couldn't hear the booing crowd, and I couldn't see them either. All I could see was Aliah.

My reflexes took over. I snatched up her sword and advanced.

"I hate you." I screamed. "You beat me, you tortured me, and then you expected me to help you!" I couldn't stop talking. "You thought you broke me, but you just made me stronger. And now its time to pay for that Aliah. Because the last thing you want to do before you piss someone off is make them STRONGER!" I raised both hands. The entire dueling arena was trembling. "I HATE YOU!" And I stabbed with the sword. Aliah fell to the ground, dead.


	10. Chapter 10

**Authors Note: I don't own any characters from the PJO or HoO series. DUH.**

**Casper's POV**

The crowd went silent. Everyone sat and stared at Aliah's body. Then someone screamed. "She's dead! She's dead! Lady Aliah is dead!" And panic spread through the crowd.

I dropped the sword and staggered backward, stunned. "She killed her! Her, down there! We all saw! Lock her up!"

"Crap." I mumbled, as the guard at the door pressed her button to slide out the stone bridge. A large crowd of kids surged over the bridge. I raised my sword, but I didn't really want to hurt them. Plus, the adrenaline felt like it was draining out of me. I couldn't have fought if I wanted to.

A couple of them cuffed me, and a blonde girl came forward with bandages. When she had wrapped my stomach, arm, and head, two guards led me through the jeering crowd to the door and down the hallway. There was a turn in the hallway up ahead, and when the two guards weren't looking I spotted Piper. She poked her head around the corner and mouthed, "Stall them." I nodded.

Suddenly I felt a sharp pain in my stomach. I doubled over and dropped to my knees.

"Ah!" I groaned.

"Get up!" One of the guards grabbed my arm and tried to pull me up.

"I can't!" I groaned. "Its my stomach. Ah!" Another stab of pain went through me. Now both guards tried to haul me up.

"Should we get a medic?" One of them asked uncertainly.

"Nah. She'll be fine." The other growled.

"Ah!" I fell onto my hands and knees. "I think I'm gonna hurl…."

"Help me with her." The second guard snapped.

"Okay." Together they lifted me up and dragged me down the hall. "But if she barfs on these shoes, I'm gonna be pissed." I hoped Piper and the others had had time to do whatever they were planning to do, and I wondered how they had gotten out.

**Ella's POV**

When Cas turned the corner, Percy and Jason jumped the guards from behind. Cas had done a great job stalling, but my heart wrenched when I saw her. She was limping slightly, and she had a bloody bandage wrapped around her arm and stomach. There was a huge purple and green bruise over her eyebrow that made her squint slightly, and she was covered in scratches and bruises.

Percy and Jason silently slammed their sword hilts into the guards heads and they crumpled. I rushed forward and hugged her.

"Ow! Stomach! Ow!" She croaked.

"Sorry!" I exclaimed, stepping back. "Are you okay?"

"Fine." She gave me a weak smile. "I-Ah!" She doubled over, hugging her stomach.

"Are you okay? Cas!" She sank to the ground with her back to the wall. Her face was pale and sweaty.

"I'm….Fine…." She said weakly.

"No, your not." I said. And she _really_ wasn't okay. "Can any of you heal?" I turned to the others, who were hovering behind us. Most of them shook their heads, but Annabeth nodded.

"I know the basics." She pulled off the bandage and winced. "This is deep. Anyone have any nectar or ambrosia?"

"Here." Frank said. He pulled a vial of nectar out of one of the guards pockets, and tossed it to Annabeth. She poured a little on the gash in Cas's stomach, and started to heal as color returned to her face.

"This is still really bad." Annabeth said. "We should give you more as soon as we get out of here." I wrapped an arm around her and helped her stand.

"Thanks." She told Annabeth. "But how are we going to get out without being ambushed by hordes of angry demigods?"

"We'll be sneaky." Leo gave me a mischievous smile, and pulled out…. a tiny bronze box. "Homemade blackout box!" He said happily.

"What's it do?" I asked. Leo looked miffed that we didn't understand his genius.

"It- You'll see." He sighed.

"Come on. We have to hurry." Jason said nervously. "More guards will be here soon." We started down the hallway, with me helping Cas along. We turned around the corner and through a door. We entered a room with a table in the middle of it, and a group of kids in armor playing go fish. They started to get up, but Leo pressed a button, and suddenly they stumbled.

"Who turned off the lights?" One shouted.

"I can't see!" Another called, waving his hands in front of him like a zombie.

"Come on." Leo whispered. We tiptoed through the room, and through the door beyond.

"What was that?" Piper asked as we hurried away.

"That, beauty queen, was a blackout!" Leo said proudly. "Makes up to ten people at a time unable to see light. Cool huh?"

"Thats….Awful." Hazel gasped.

"Oh. And it wears off."

"Oh. Then its cool."

"Come on!" Percy said when we reached the end of the hall. "This door is locked. Ella, can you-"

"Hold Cas." I said.

"Nobody has to hold- ow!" She scowled and leaned against Percy. "Fine then." I stepped forward and touched a finger to the lock. I had only found out I could do this about ten minutes ago, when I had accidentally brushed one hand against the lock on my cell, and it had unlocked. Now, I sensed the tumblers, and as I focused on them they slid aside. There was a click, and I pushed open the door.

We took off again. We had to "blackout" several more guards along the way. I had to unlock another door, up the stairs, and then we burst out into the cool darkness of a California nighttime. We were back in the alley. A few blocks away, I could see the school bus we had driven here. It was like nothing had ever happened.

We climbed onto the bus, where Annabeth and Percy found more nectar for Cas. They poured some on her arm and stomach. They tried to pour some on the huge bruise on her head, but it didn't help that much. At least it faded a little.

Cas fell asleep as soon as she laid down. I was worried about her, and not just because she was injured. She had killed Aliah. She had spent her entire life on the run, and most of it was running from Aliah. Her universe revolved around hiding from her, and now that she was gone, I wasn't sure if Cas was as okay as she was pretending to be.

We all fell asleep, except for Jason and Annabeth, who took turns driving. When I woke up the next morning, we were out at an abandoned campground, with birds chirping and blinding sunlight, just barely trickling down to where we were underneath the redwoods.

**Casper's POV**

"And she's alive!" Leo called as I stumbled out of the bus. "I thought you were gonna sleep through breakfast."

"Breakfast?"

"Tacos!" Leo said proudly. "Get `em while they're hot!" I went over to the campfire he had built in the firepit. Leo and the others were sitting at the picnic table next to the fire. I took a taco and sat down.

"`Morning sis." Percy said cheerfully, but with his mouth full it sounded more like "muffin says".

"Good morning." I said, biting into my taco. "Where are we?"

"Dunno." Jason yawned. "Some abandoned camp site. I didn't see the sign."

"Where are we going to go now?" Frank asked, done with both his tacos.

"Well, I think some parts of the prophecy have already been fulfilled." Hazel said, shrinking back a little bit when everyone turned to look at her. "_The seven again, plus two, daughter of earth, daughter of hawk._ That was fulfilled when we all agreed to even go on this quest. Then several more lines, _the heroes ties, broken by the witches hand_ could mean when Casper was taken by Aliah. Aliah could be a witch."

"I don't think so." Piper said. "The heroes ties makes it sound like we're going to fight, and so does _friends duel,_ and _combine or fight_. I don't think that part has happened yet."

"What about _death shall rise_?" I asked nervously. "What does that mean? How can death rise?"

"That's why we need to go the underworld. Unfortunately, we just ran for our lives away from the only entrance." Ella pointed out. "No way we get down through there." I noticed something I hadn't seen in the darkness of Sanctuary. Her hair, always brightly colored, was faded, and her roots were showing. It had been so long, I couldn't even remember what her normal hair color was. it was blonde, bleached from multiple dies. She looked good blonde, but I would never tell her that because she would look at me like I was a lunatic.

"There are other entrances," Hazel said. "I came out through one up in Washington when I came back."

"Thats not as far as it could be." Percy said. "Where in Washington?"

"Seattle." Hazel said cheerfully. "Underneath the big troll statue."

"Troll statue?"

"Yeah. I love Seattle. There's a big statue of a troll underneath a bride, and right between the trolls hands there's a door that the mortals can't see." Hazel explained. "I know where it is once we get to the city….I think."

"You think?" Annabeth suddenly looked worried.

"How hard can it be to find a giant statue of a troll?" Hazel pointed out.

"Fair point."

"All aboard the Leo train!" Leo called from the drivers seat. "Seattle, here we come!"

"Hey, no way are you driving." Percy said, running for the bus.

So we set off for Seattle.


	11. Chapter 11

**authors note: Don't own any characters you may know from PJO or HoO. Blah blah blah blah. Ta-Da:**

Casper's POV

It was evening again by the time we got to Seattle. It was a big city, but not nearly as big as New York City. There was an odd white tripod building in the downtown that Annabeth called the space needle, but we were all exhausted by the time we got there, so we crashed in someplace called Jefferson Park.

I got woken up the next morning by the bus exploding.

It was the blast that saved me. It ripped through the back of the bus, and threw me forward through the front windows. I rolled over the hood and slammed into a tree. The flames tore through the bus, and I scrambled to my feet, barefoot, screaming for the others. Leo stumbled down the steps, carrying a limp body. I rushed forward and yanked the door open, ignoring my blistering fingers. Leo fell forward and I took Piper out of his arms, setting her down on the grass out of the fire's path. Leo ran back in, and came back out a minute later, with Frank hacking and coughing, using Leo as a crutch.

I helped Frank over to Piper, and felt my coat pockets, but I had no nectar or ambrosia. It had all been on the bus, which was currently sending flames high into the sky, choking me with smoke.

"Help me with her!" Leo barely made it out with Hazel. When Frank saw her he rushed over and lifted her out of Leo's arms. She looked tiny compared to him. He set her down on the grass next to Piper.

"Get the others!" I screamed, my voice throat hoarse.

"Its up in flames!" Leo yelled. "Nobody else in there!" I hoped he meant there was nobody else in there; they were all safe outside, not: there was nobody else in there; they were all dead. I set Hazel next to Frank and Piper, my arms trembling.

"I'm going to go look around." I said. "You try and put out the fire." He nodded, and reached into his toolbelt, pulling out a fire extinguisher. I ran around in the grass, limping on the broken glass. I spotted a lump on top of a row of bushes. I ran over, and tried to lift Percy up, but the guy is heavier then he looks, especially while unconscious. I managed to drag him over. I searched a bit more, but I couldn't see the others. I started trying to treat my friends wounds.

I pulled off Percy's pullover. I felt bad about taking it, but he had a t-shirt on underneath and I needed cloth. I tore it into strips and wrapped their cuts. Leo came over and helped. We worked in silence, neither one of us wanting to say anything. If I opened my mouth I think I would have started crying. Leo, me, Piper, Hazel, Frank, and Percy had made it out. That meant that Annabeth, Ella, and Jason were….gone.

"Do you think…." Leo's voice broke. "Do you think they could be alive?" I wanted to make him feel better, but I didn't want to lie.

"No." Frank said. I glared at him, and Leo bit his lip and looked down.

"I don't know." I said softly. Leo got up and started trying to put out the fire again. In a few minutes, all that was left of the bus, and our missing friends, was a charred mess of metal.

"Oh, hey," Leo said suddenly. "You're hurt!" He motioned to my shoulder. A piece of metal had left a cut on my collarbone. I hadn't even felt it until he pointed it out.

"It's fine." I said.

"No, its not." Leo said. "Let me help."

"They need it more." I said, pulling my hair down from underneath my hat (yes, I had had it on this entire time). It went down just past my shoulders when I let it, and I pulled it so he couldn't see the cut.

Leo didn't argue. From his face I could tell that he knew there was nothing he could say. I didn't want his help.

"What…." Piper's eyes fluttered open. "Leo? Where…."

"Beauty queen!" Leo rushed over to her. I didn't. I turned my head back and stared at the sky. I knew that she would ask where the other three were, and I didn't want to be the one to tell her two friends and her boyfriend were gone.

Gone.

Ella was gone. I refused to even think the word dead. She couldn't be. I could feel it, somehow. There was some way. But for now, I needed something to distract me.

"How did this happen?" I muttered. "Buses don't just explode. Something happened." I glanced at my watch. The plastic was cracked open, and the hands had stopped at 7:14. That was pretty late, considering. Ella was an early riser. The latest she had ever gotten up was 6:30, so she must have gotten up before the explosion.

I started to pace, excited. If she got up early, then she might've accidentally woken Annabeth and Jason. And they were ADD. There was no way they'd just sat quietly. So if they left the bus….

A dry sob came from behind me. Piper was crying. Leo must have just told her about Jason. I spun around.

"No! Piper! Its okay!"

"How exactly is it okay?" Piper choked. She sagged against Leo, her fingernails were digging into his arm. "I could use some okay right now."

"I think they're alive." I said excitedly, showing them my watch and explaining. "They could be back any minute now." Piper and Leo exchanged a look. I could tell they thought I was in shock and was clutching at straws, but I knew I was right. "We just have to wait for them to come back."

"We can't go anywhere until Hazel and Percy wake up." Leo said halfheartedly. There was streaks on his grimey cheeks where tears had fallen. He wanted them to be alive as much as I did, but he still didn't believe it.

"Hey, you could be right!" Frank said excitedly. "They could be back any minute now." I nodded. Piper didn't say anything.

We just sat there for a while. Hazel and Percy didn't wake up. Nobody said anything. We must have waited for a half hour until, from far above, I heard a shout.

"Hey!" It was Ella. I looked, up and felt tears leak out of my eyes.

"Ella." I choked. Jason set Annabeth and Ella down next to the ruined bus. They ran over to us. Annabeth dropped to her knees next to Percy. "He's okay." I managed. "Just unconscious." Ella gave me a bear hug. She was talking so fast I could only hear snippets of her words.

"We heard-explosion-you okay-I thought-oh my _gods_-the bus-"

"I'm fine." I sobbed. "I thought you were dead!"

"You thought...? Okay, what happened?"

We all sat down around on the grass next to Hazel and Percy. "First off-" Leo started. "The bus exploded." We told the hole story. The others were amazed when we told about how Leo and I had pulled them from the bus. Luckily, Annabeth had had a bag of ambrosia in her pocket when they had left to explore the city. We gave some to Hazel and Percy. Leo even made me eat some, because of the blisters on my hands and the cut on my shoulder. I had spent this whole trip getting injured.

Hazel and Percy woke up after the ambrosia. We were all puzzled about why the bus had spontaneously combusted, but could find no answers. Jason and Frank left and came back with coffee and baked goods.

"There must be a zillion Starbuck's here." Jason said, chewing on a blueberry muffin. "We didn't see the bridge you mentioned, Hazel, now or earlier when we were looking. I think we should start looking at the space needle, that tripod building."

"Good idea." Piper said. She held his hand. She hadn't let go of him since he'd landed. "We can work our way outward from there."

"Sure." Annabeth said. "And I want a closer look at the space needle."

"How hard can it be to find a statue of a troll?" Ella snorted.

As it turned out, really hard.


	12. Chapter 12

**Authors Note: sorry its been so long since I updated, been busy. I don't own any characters from the PJO or HoO series. I'll try to update more often if I can. **

**Casper's POV ~**

Annabeth, Ella, and I met up with the others for lunch at a little cafe at noon. We had spent all morning exploring downtown Seattle. Annabeth had dragged us all the way around a huge brightly colored metal building called the EMP museum. But after Annabeth spent a half hour talking about

and different materials and whatever, we dragged her away.

Annabeth dragged us through a bunch of other buildings until Ella and I pointed out that there wasn't going to be a bridge in an art museum, and we hit the streets again. We met up with the others.

"Nothing in the University District." Percy sighed. "No trolls or otherwise." He drew a big red X over an entire neighborhood on a map of Seattle we had bought.

"Nothing in this area too." I said, marking off the places we had checked.

"Or Capitol hill. Did a flyby, and nothing." Jason sighed. "How can it be this hard to find a statue of a troll?"

"Why don't we just ask someone?" Frank sighed. "Troll statue has to be pretty well known, right? The locals would know."

"Brilliant!" Ella said excitedly. "Lets start with the lady at the counter."

The woman at the counter was a cheerful blonde woman, no older then twenty five. She smiled pleasantly at Ella and I as we approached.

"Troll statue? Of course!" She laughed. "Any local could tell you that. It's down in Fremont. I can show you on a map if you want."

"That'd be great." I smiled politely and showed her our map. "Thank you." We walked back to our table. "It's here. In Fremont." I grinned.

A half hour later we were standing in front of a huge statue of a troll underneath a bridge. There was a bunch of people around, taking pictures with the troll and climbing on him and stuff. Personally, I was pretty creeped out by the huge thing, but the tourists seemed to like it.

And right at the base of the statue was a black door with no handle, leading right into the ground.

"How do we open it?" Leo asked, running one hand along the door. "I can't sense any locks or anything. It doesn't even have any hinges."

"It doesn't work that way." Hazel said. "I'm not entirely sure how it does work though."

"I could probably knock it down." Frank speculated.

"That isn't how it works. A fleet of bulldozers couldn't push that door down." Hazel sighed. "But theres one person who can tell us how to get it open. I'm going to IM Nico." We walked over to a fire hydrant and pulled off one bolt, sending a spray across the sidewalk.

"Oh Iris, goddess of the rainbow, accept this offering. Show us Nico di Angelo!" Percy tossed a golden drachma into the spray, and the rainbow changed to an image of a scrawny boy with black hair and an aviator's jacket, sparring in the sword arena with a blonde boy that I recognized as Will Solace from the Apollo cabin.

"Nico!" Hazel called through, once, they were done. "Over here!" The boy turned, and when he spotted Hazel he rushed over.

"Hi guys. Whats going on?" Will Solace had come with him, and the two crowded in front of the mist.

"We're in Seattle." Hazel said. "Oh, hi Will."

"Hi guys." He said cheerfully, waving. "Whatcha doin in Seattle?"

"There's a door into the underworld here." Hazel explained, turning back to Nico. "I was wondering if you could tell me how to open it." Nico nodded.

"You have to…." He looked embarrassed. "I'm not really supposed to tell anyone but Pluto and Hades kids…." He trailed off. Will's face disappeared from the image, and we all stepped back. Nico whispered something to Hazel, and she nodded. They said a quick goodbye, and she swiped her hand through the mist.

"I know how to open it." Hazel said. "But it only works at midnight, according to Nico. We have to wait."

"Then I guess we should find a place to crash until then." Percy sighed. "Any ideas, other than the cleanest alley we can find?"

"Motel?" Leo suggested hopefully.

"Not enough money." Piper pointed out. "A park is better then an alley though."

"Can't you just, you know, hot wire us another ride?" Jason asked Ella. "It's worked the last few times." Ella looked like she was considering it for a second, but then she shook her head.

"Adults ignore you until you start stealing. I think we should go easy on the five-finger discount. Besides, we don't all fit in most of these cars. I don't think we'll stumble across another school bus. We're not that lucky, and its not worth it for just one night."

"You're right." Percy sighed. "No where near that lucky. Park it is, then." We glanced quickly at the map and found a park. We walked over and hunkered down behind a brick wall, in front of a row of hedges.

Annabeth and Percy were off to one side, whispering. They looked scared about something.

"Are they okay?" I asked Piper worriedly. Ella sat on my other side, listening too. "They've looked anxious about something all day."

"There alright… I think." Piper said. "They've been to Tartarus before, and something tells me they're not eager to revisit it."

"Oh." I fidgeted with my sword handle. "I had a feeling it was something like that. Did they say what it was like there?"

"No. I don't think they like to talk about it."

"I think something is going to happen." I blurted out, and it was true. All day, I'd been having an apprehensive feeling like something big was about to happen, but I couldn't quite put my finger on what it would be.

"What do you mean by that?" Ella asked. "What something?"

"I'm not sure." I said, wishing I had never said anything. "I just have this feeling."

It was then that the glowing fish guy appeared. There was a big flash of light, and a glowing ten-foot-tall merman appeared, hovering a few inches above the ground. He was dressed in a Hawaiian flower t-shirt, and was holding a trident.

"Ah!" I squeaked. "What the Hades!"

"What is it?" Hazel asked, drawing her sword. Frank twisted and changed into a boar. Jason and Percy stood up, so did I.

"You can't see him?" I asked, pulling out my own, too heavy sword. "He's right there."

"Who's right there?" Jason asked.

"Woah!" Percy exclaimed suddenly, stumbling backwards. "I see him too!"

"Why can't the rest of us see him?" Annabeth said, holding her dagger out in front of her protectively.

"He's here for us." I said. I didn't know how I knew, but I just did. "He has a message for us. We need to follow him." Piper grabbed one of my arms.

"That's a really bad idea…" Ella said nervously.

"No, she's right." Percy said. "I can feel it."

It took a while, but eventually, we convinced the others to let us go. As soon as we started forward, the merman turned and floated away. We followed him for a while, right to the harbor. He started into the water, and we followed.

Percy started into the water, and after a moments hesitation I found that I wasn't wet, even though I was knee deep in the freezing water. I dove under after Percy, and could breath easily under the water.

When we were about twenty feet under, the merman stopped. He turned, and raised one finger, as if to say _just a sec._ Then he disappeared.

"What the-" I started, but before anything happened, another man appeared. He looked like a surfer, with a Hawaiian shirt, and a fishing pole in one hand. His hair was dark like Percy and I's, and he had the same sea green eyes.

"Dad?" Percy asked.

"_Dad_?" I asked, taking a step back as well as I could underwater.

"Hello, my children." The man said. "Hello, Caspian."

"You." I stared at him. "You're my, my…. dad?"

"I am indeed." He said, maybe a little apprehensively. "I have something that I need to-"

"Woah woah woah!" I put my hands up in front of me in a stop everything gesture. "I have questions buddy. Number one: who was my mom? Number two- what kind of dad gives a girl a name like 'Caspian'? And number three-"

"Please." Poseidon seemed to have aged ten years while I had been talking. "One day, I will answer all of those questions. But for now, I do not have much time to talk." Percy put one hand on my shoulder as if to say, _not now_. "I have something for you, Caspian." He held out one hand, and the fishing pole morphed into a small box wrapped in shiny green paper, and tied up with pearl colored ribbon.

I reached out and took it with shaky hands. "That may come in handy. Unwrap it later, we haven't much time." He turned to Percy. "And for you." He pulled a pearl out of one pocket and handed it to him. "Just in case." He turned to both of us with a sly smile. "Good luck."

Then he disappeared.

Percy took gently took my arm and pulled me towards the shore. "We have to go." I followed him, my head swirling. My dad had given me a present. But he hadn't ever been there. One present couldn't change that, but I was still a little excited to see what it was.

"You should wait to open it." Percy told me on the walk back. "So the others can see." I nodded.

"What was that pearl, though? You looked like you knew what it meant." He looked grim.

"One of Persephone's pearls. It's a shortcut out of the underworld. Crush the pearl, reappear up here in the mortal world. It's not a good sign that dad thought I would need it." We walked back to where the others were waiting nervously. We had been gone way longer then it seemed, and the sun was starting to go down.

"What happened? What took so long? What's that box?" Ella yelled, rushing forward.

"I don't….I don't know." I felt numb. "My dad gave it to me."

Then Percy told them everything that happened. They all crowded around as I opened the box. I used Piper's knife to cut off the ribbon, and pulled off the paper. It was a small black jewelry box, and I lifted the lid with trembling fingers. Inside, resting on a cushion, was a bronze necklace. there was three charms on it, shaped like a shield, a spear, a dagger, and a sword. I picked it up.

"Its beautiful." Hazel gasped.

"What's with those charms?" Annabeth asked. "They look like more then decoration." I pulled on the shield charm, and instantly I was holding a full sized bronze shield, with a strange symbol on it. It was a trident, crossed sideways with a sword. Underneath that was the words **FEMINAM BELLATOR** engraved underneath. Along the top was the words **PROTECTOR INFIRMA**. Symbols were carved all around the edges.

"Wow!" Jason whooped. "Thats as good as my coin, or riptide."

"What do these words mean?" I asked.

"Feminam bellator means female warrior, and protector infirma means protector of the weak." Frank said. "Its Latin. And all these symbols mean victory in one language or another. I recognize the one in Chinese."

"How do you turn it back?" Piper asked. "And take out the others so we can see." I pressed the shield against the chain, and it shrank again. I pulled on the dagger, and a six inch bronze dagger with gold carvings in the shape of waves down the knife. The sword was perfectly weighted, as long as my old one with a perfect leather grip and gold and blue waves down the edges. The spear was similarly pretty, with a bronze and gold tip.

Piper helped me put the gold chain necklace on. It was ten that night already, so we sat down to sleep. Hazel took first watch, promising to wake us up so we could go with her to open the door. I drifted off into sleep, one hand resting on my neck, holding the golden necklace.


	13. Chapter 13

**Authors Note: , F I don't own any characters from PJO or HoO. Onwards!**

**Ella's POV ~**

We stood like twenty feet away as Hazel approached the door, whispering and running her hands along the door. I slipped behind the others to where Casper was standing, fidgeting with her new necklace.

"Are you okay, Cas?" I whispered.

"I'm fine." She looked surprised.

"I mean, I know after Aliah you must be-" I started.

"I really don't want to talk about this." She interrupted me. "I'm fine Ella. Really." I opened my mouth to say more, but she stepped forwards next to Percy. I sighed. I gripped the handle of my own sword and turned my attention to Hazel, she had both hands on the door, and from the glowing aura around her I hoped she was getting close.

Suddenly, the aura exploded outwards in a sudden much brighter burst, and Hazel fell backwards onto her back. The door crumbled, and revealed a black tunnel beyond. We all rushed forward. Frank fell to his knees and held Hazel's head in his hands.

"Don't worry." Annabeth said. "She's fine." At that moment, Hazel's eyes fluttered open.

"What…." Hazel asked weakly. "Gods, let me up. I'm fine. I just got lightheaded." She took Frank's hand and stood. She was a little unsteady, but seemed fine otherwise. "I'm fine." She repeated. "And I got the door open. We should go, it will close again in a few minutes." Leo's hands burst into fire, and he leaned into the doorway.

"Ew." He said. "Smells like my Aunt Rosa's apartment."

"Are you sure you're okay?" Percy asked Hazel worriedly. "You freaked us out there for a minute."

"Don't worry about me." Hazel said, and she really did look fine now. "Lets go already."

We entered the tunnel two by two. Percy and Leo went first, lighting the way. Annabeth followed, then Jason and Piper followed, then Hazel and Frank, and Ella and I went last. I looked back at the streetlights, for what I was terrified would be the last time, and entered the darkness.

I felt Cas grab my hand. I could tell that she was scared, because she often refused to admit to fear. I think thats why we clicked so perfectly. She was brave and strong and stoic, the protector of the weak, as her shield said. I was the funny, touchy-feely, friendly, not so strong one.

For some reason, in the dark, I remembered the day Cas and I first met.

I had been walking to the supermarket in the middle of fall, when I turned down a side alley to take a shortcut, and felt a man's grimy hand clamp over my mouth, and a metal blade appeared in front of my face. The man shoved me back into the alley, knife raised.

"What's in that bag, girlie?" The man asked.

"N-Nothing." I managed. "Its empty."

"It better not be." He said, snatching my bag. It really was empty, and the man growled angrily and tossed the empty bag to one side. "Empty your pockets, kid." He raised the knife.

"Hey!" Another voice came from the entrance to the alley, a voice that would become very familiar one day. "Back off loser." The man turned, and I saw her. She was ragged, dressed in a torn leather jacket, dirty jeans, and coming apart sneakers. Her hair was dirty as was her face and arms, and a bloody bandage was wrapped around her upper right arm. Her eyes were wild like a cornered animal, and she limped as she took a step forward.

"Make me." The man lunged, knife raised. She side stepped, grabbed his wrist, and twisted, sending the knife clanging on the concrete. The man gave a little whimper, and ran. She looked at me.

"You okay?" I just nodded, mouth open at the strange and wild girl before me. "Get outta here in case he comes back." She gave me that lopsided troublemaker smile that would always annoy me, and then turned and sprinted away.

I saw her again occasionally, on the street or in the store, but she always saw me too and ran before I could catch up.

It was a few weeks later, in late November, just as the days were turning cold and drizzly, that we met again. I was down at the docks, and I spotted her, huddled on the end of one of the stone wharfs, as long as a city block with rust growing up its sides like a weed.

"Hey!" I called. "Its you!" I ran towards her, and even though she tried to stand, she didn't seem to be able to. She was gaunt, like she hadn't eaten in days. She sat on one side, one leg crooked in front of her. She clutched the edge of a rusty metal barrel, and seemed to be in pain.

"Please, leave me alone." She groaned. "Go away."

"Hey, you're hurt!" I stopped in front of her. "Let me help."

"No. Leave, its not safe for you to be around me." I crossed my arms, and raised an eyebrow at her. "Just go before we're spotted." She made another attempt to stand, but she winced and fell back onto her side.

"I think your leg is infected. Let me help you, please." She finally nodded, and let me help her back to my apartment.

"Ella!" Cas's voice snapped me out of my thoughts. "You spaced out there for a minute."

"Sorry. Just thinking. What is it?" It took me a minute to realize that the tunnel was filling with a red light.

"We're here." We stepped forward, and saw that we had entered the underworld.


	14. Chapter 14

**Authors Note; don't own characters from PJO and HoO. Also, I really like getting reviews. I'm always open to questions & comments & whatever. Ta-da! Chapter fourteen:**

**Casper's POV ~**

A huge cavern stretched outwards as far as I could see. Far off to my left was Elysium, and far off to my right was the fields of punishment. In front of me was the fields of Asphodel. Beyond that, was a huge obsidian palace, with four huge towers.

Behind us was the official entrance, three lines of traffic, Cerberus, and the judges.

"Oh gods." Piper whispered. "This place is huge."

"Lets hurry." Hazel said nervously. "I don't really like it down here." We started down the hill and across the fields of Asphodel. I was way more scared then I wanted to admit, even to Ella. Whispering human shapes drifted out of our way as we walked, crowding behind us, whispering, mourning their forgotten lives. It had occurred to me that my mom might be down here. I pushed that thought away and stuck my tongue out at a ghost, which made me feel a bit better.

"So, where should we go now were here?" I asked to break the silence.

"Tartarus." Annabeth said, gripping Percy's hand. The single word spread through the ranks of ghosts and they whispered louder, drawing back and looking at us more warily. A shiver ran down my spine. "There's an entrance under Hades's palace. We should go in there."

"Can't we do something, you know, without entering the bottomless pit of evil?" I asked.

"No." Percy said, looking grim. "We've been there, and trust me if there was any way to do this without going in again, we would be doing that right now. But there isn't so we have to go in. Hopefully together we'll live through this."

"That's making us feel better." I mumbled under my breath, but I could tell Percy was just stressed.

We got to the palace about an hour later, and Percy and Annabeth lead us around it into a cave. Inside, the ground sloped steeply towards a crack that lead into darkness.k

"Is that-" Ella said anxiously. Percy nodded.

"Well!" I said. "Anyone have any ideas as how to get to the bottom without smashing into a pancake at the bottom?"

"I could fly down one person at a time." Jason said.

"Too far. It would take forever."

"We could just jump-"

"Are you kidding?"

"Anyone got any rope? We could repel."

"Way too far for that too."

"Actually," Leo said. We all turned to look at him. "I think we do have enough rope."

"But you don't have any rope." Piper said uncertainly.

"Prepare for uncle Leo to amaze you lads and lassies!" He grinned, and reached into his tool belt. He pulled out the end of a rope, and kept pulling, until there was a huge pile of rope next to him. "I think thats all the ol' magic belt can give us for now." He said. "It'll need a recharge time after all this. Enough?"

"Maybe." Annabeth said, mentally measuring the rope. "Not enough to get us to the bottom but enough for Jason to carry us down."

"Excellent!" Leo said. I didn't know how he could be so positive right before we lowered into Tartarus. "Then it's high-ho, off to work we go!" He and Annabeth started knotting the rope into handholds.

"Who want to go first?" Piper asked nervously.

"I was thinking I could fly down." Frank said. "Rope climbing, not my thing."

"I'll go first." I said. A couple of people looked surprised, but nobody disagreed. Leo carefully knotted one end to a stalagmite, and tossed the other into the crevice. I was starting to reconsider, but I couldn't back down now. I grabbed the rope, and hopped backward into the pit. I jerked and started lowering my self down. I was down about twenty meters when Hazel started down above me.

My hands burned on the rope, and my arms felt like they were about to pop out of their sockets. I scooted down lower as Percy's legs appeared at the top. I was a bit out of breath, but I was almost to the end of the rope.

I pinched the very last knot on the rope with my feet and clutched the rope. "Hey!" I yelled up. Everyone but Frank and Jason was on the rope now. "I'm at the bottom!" I looked down, and far below I could see Tartarus, and immediately wished I hadn't looked.

Jason appeared next to me. "Still pretty far." He said nervously. "Not sure I can get you down there. Be back in a second." And he shot upwards. He was back a minute later with a giant bald eagle, which I guessed was Frank.

"Frank will carry you down." Jason told me. "I'm going to take Hazel. It will go faster that way." I nodded, and the eagle grasped my upper arms. He squawked, and I let go of the rope, squeezing my eyes shut. He didn't drop me, and I could feel his talons digging into my arms.

He set me down on the ground, and he flew up again towards the rope, leaving me alone. I rubbed my sore forearms and immediately noticed that it was boiling hot on the black plains where Frank had set me down. I took off my denim jacket. I felt a pang as I tossed it to one side on the shattered glass ground, but I didn't want to have to carry it and it was too hot to wear it.

I tore off the sleeves of my black shirt and used one of them to tie my hair in a ponytail, even though it was so short that it stuck straight out a few inches from the back of my head when I tied it up. Jason set Hazel down next to me a minute later. In about ten minutes we were all standing in Tartarus. Annabeth and Percy looked terrified, but they didn't say anything so it must not have been something we needed to know.

It was oficial. We were in Tartarus.

**Ella's POV ~**

Jason set me down next to Cas. She wore a black shirt with the sleeves torn off, her tattered jeans, and sneakers. She had lost her red hat somewhere along the way, and dirt, ash, and blood, was smeared on her face and arms. She looked like some badass super heroine from a comic book.

"Okay." Piper said. "Now where should we go?"

"I guess we should go…." Percy said, an arm around Annabeth. "To its heart." He pointed to the dark horizon.

"Oh, fun. Its heart." Cas said sarcastically. "At _least_ its not raining." Percy shot her a look like, _not now_.

And at that moment, it started to rain.

"You had to say it." Frank groaned. "I hate rain. And this rain is- OW!" The rain stung, and Frank ducked as the first drops struck him.

"It burns! Find shelter!" Piper screamed. We all scattered. I saw Cas snatching up her jacket from the ground and holding it over her head. I looked down and saw that the rain was turning my bare arms red and raw. Percy was trying to use his water abilities to keep the rain off, but it wasn't working. He and Annabeth ran with Hazel one way, Jason and Frank and Piper went the other. Leo, Cas, and I ran in a different direction, searching for shelter from the acidic rain.

"There!" Leo screamed, pointing to a cave rock out hanging that jutted from a cliff far away. We sprinted for it, and reached it safely (except for the minor burns on our arms, necks, and backs). Rain came down even harder as we huddled underneath it. The rain came down in sheets in front of our shallow cave. I couldn't see what had happened to the others.

I don't know how long we waited there, but eventually the rain stopped, and we left our shelter. The good news- none of us were injured. Cas and I were fine after a few drops of ambrosia, and Leo couldn't even feel his burns, they were so few and so tiny.

"It's a part of my fire resistance thing, I guess." He said. The bad news- we couldn't find anyone else. We searched the entire field. Near where the shattered glass field became a black wood forest we found footprints, but we soon lost the trail once we entered the forest.

"I guess we should go back to that cave and wait the night." Leo said. As the most experienced, he had become unofficial group leader when we couldn't find the others.

"We should keep looking." Cas insisted. "Their out here somewhere."

"It's getting dark." Leo said wearily. I could tell he didn't want to give up either. "Or darker, or whatever. If we couldn't find them in this light then chances are, our best bet is to hope they can find us. We'll get some sleep, eat, then head out again." He sounded like he was trying to convince himself too. "We're not giving up Casper, I promise."

We walked back to the cave. Cas took first watch. Leo made tacos, and then he and I lay down to sleep. Cas drew her sword and shield and sat at the cave entrance.

I would later wish I had taken watch.

I had a horrible nightmare. I was walking through camp half blood, and I came into the woods. It was a sunny day, but suddenly the air darkened and the green trees melted away, becoming the midnight forest I had seen in Tartarus. I started running. I had the terrible feeling that I was being chased, and that there was something in these woods that I had to find.

Suddenly I came into a clearing, the clearing where Cas had caused an earthquake and collapsed that pile of boulders.

And laying in front of the boulders, was the bodies of my friends, dead.

I screamed, but my voice made no noise. I tried to run to them, but I was sinking into the ground, the mud covering my legs, waist, chest, and head. I couldn't breath, and suddenly I was through the ground and falling at terminal velocity towards Tartarus.

"_This shall happen no matter what you try little hero." _A rumbling voice echoed out of the walls, the floor, the ceiling. Tartarus itself was speaking to me. "_But you have a choice. When the lost boy speaks, you will have the chance to turn. Join us, and I might spare this one."_

Suddenly I was standing back in the black forest, and in front of me was Cas, eyes open, a look of shock on her face like _Hey! I did _not _see that coming!_

"_Join us,"_ The voice came again. "_And you and she will be given a new life. You will be safe, and after all, isn't that what you've always wanted?"_ Then I woke up.

Line Break!

**Casper's POV ~**

I sat in the cave as Leo and then Ella drifted off. I fiddled with my sword. I couldn't tell what it was, but I had the creepiest feeling that this place was alive. I felt like I was wandering towards the belly of the beast, no matter what I did. I brushed that aside. One thing at a time Caspian, I reminded myself. Focus on what you _can_ do.

Maybe an hour later, Ella woke up. She looked troubled, and I felt like I should say something, but that wasn't really something I was good at.

"No sign of them then?" Ella asked.

"Do you want the good news or the bad news first?" I raised my eyebrows at her. Even in this situation I couldn't help but be sarcastic. It was a bad habit I was trying to break. Whenever I got stressed, I spoke kind of rudely before I thought.

"Good news." She said. Leo had just woken up, and he yawned.

"No, always ask for bad first."

"Good news it it." I said. They both rolled their eyes. "Good news: no sign of any monsters. Bad news: no sign of any of our friends. Other bad news: I've been thinking about it, and the longer we wait the less likely it is we're going to find them, so we should head out." They nodded. We grabbed any of our things that we had set down, including my jacket and Ella's bow.

We walked across the field, and entered the woods. Ella looked nervous about that for some reason, but I tapped her arm and gave her a smile, and she seemed to relax a bit.

We searched for I don't-know-how-long. A little ways into the woods, we found evidence that the others had been there. Branches had been snapped off and used to light a fire. There was a few rubies scattered a bit aways away from that, and on a broken branch a little ways away, was a white and red feather. The same feather that had been in Piper's hair the day before.

We walked in that direction, but as the tiny bit of light faded again we still had found nothing. Here and there was a broken branch a footprint, a bit of monster dust, but our friends were moving faster then we were and they had a head start.

"HEY!" Ella screamed so suddenly I jumped. "HEY!"

"What the Hades are you doing?" I said.

"I can't take this anymore. We'll never catch up. We'll never find them. They have to come to us. I can't _take_ this anymore!" She put her hands to her mouth and started calling again. "HEY! HAZEL! PERCY! ANNABETH! JASON! ANYBODY!"

"Shh!" Leo said, clapping a hand over her mouth. "You're attracting all kinds of monsters!"

"Both of you shut up!" I hissed. "Did you hear that?" We all stopped talking and stared out into the dark woods.

I was just about to say, "Just my imagination" when a flock of withered old ladies with wings approached from all sides, leering and glaring at us.

"Welcome to my forest." The voice didn't come from just one. It seemed to reverberate through the forest as if the ground itself was speaking. Tartarus was speaking to us. "These are the _auri_. I hope you like cuses." The voice faded away as if Tartarus's consciousness was now focused someplace else.

"What are auri?" Leo asked, setting his hands ablaze. The three of us stood back to back, facing the ring of chicken ladies.

I pulled out my sword with the dagger in my other hand. Ella drew her bow and aimed an arrow at an auri.

"Wait, don't attack!" Curses and auri. Suddenly it had clicked in my brain. I remembered that auri were the spirits of monsters dying breaths. The curses that monsters threw at the heroes that had slain them as they died became auri. I quickly explained this to Ella and Leo.

"Then what the Hades are we supposed to do?" Ella asked. "We're surrounded."

"New plan: I light a few up, and we run." Leo said.

"Thats a negatory fire breath." I told him. "Some of these curses are fatal. We just push through them and then run."

"They can still attack." Ella said. "Thats a bad plan."

"_We can hear you you know."_ The auri hissed. "_And we're not going to give you a choice."_ The auri lunged.

I raised my sword instinctively, and slashed at an auri as it tried to bite me. Suddenly I felt like I was going to vomit.

Behind me, Leo was having more luck. He dodged and weaved between the auri. Two of them dove to catch him and slammed into each other instead. Ella shot an arrow into an auri's arm, and it exploded into dust. She staggered, and I saw bloody claw marks on her arm.

"Ella!" I started over, but an auri tackled me from behind and sunk its teeth into my neck. Another grabbed my sword arm. I twisted, but a third was latching onto my legs. I toppled onto my stomach, and three more pinned me down.

"_Sooner or later half-blood, you will have to fight back."_ They hissed. I rolled onto my back and punched one in the face. I stabbed another with my dagger and slit a thirds throat. But more just kept piling on.

My right shoulder felt like it was on fire. I had a splitting headache. As I stabbed another, I felt a searing pain in my chest. I had just risen to my feet, and now I collapsed again. The auri stopped attacking. I couldn't breath. I looked down and saw blood spreading across my chest.

"Cas!" Ella's voice sounded hoarse and terrified. The auri were flying away. Leo and Cas dropped to their knees on either side of me. I was gasping for breath. Everything after that was a blur. I heard talking, I was laying down, and it hurt so much…

**Ella's POV ~**

As the auri flew away, I felt like we had won for a moment.

Then I turned around, and saw Cas. She had this surprised look on her face, and she dropped her sword. She had monster dust in her hair, and blood all down her front.

"Ah, the curse of Aliah." Tartarus spoke again. "Wise choice demigod."

It was like the world was in slow motion. Cas looked like she couldn't breath as she fell backward and lay on her back, black hair spread out around her like in wind. I ran towards her. She gasped, twitching, trying to breath. Leo and I dropped to our knees on either side of her.

"Cas! Cas!" I was practically sobbing. I squeezed her hand, tears pouring down my face. "Get up! Tease me! Fight me! Anything! Just be okay!" Leo was frantically searching his toolbelt.

"The Hades!" Leo cursed. "The belt can't summon ambrosia or nectar."

"What- Hades! What the Hades happened? Is she- oh my gods!" I whipped my head around to see the others, running towards us. I didn't know how they were here or why. All mattered was that they were here, and maybe one of them had ambrosia or nectar for Cas.

"Auri!" Leo told them. "Does anyone have ambrosia? Nectar? Anything?" Percy dropped to the ground next to Leo, pale.

"I don't!" Percy said, looking shocked. Cas was going into spasms, gripping my hand so tightly it hurt.

"I think I have… Yes!" Piper rushed forward, holding a plastic baggie with a square of ambrosia in it. We put a little in Cas's mouth. It helped a little. She relaxed and the wound in her chest closed a little bit, but she had still lost a lot of blood.

"Ella?" She looked at me kind of blearily, like she had just woken up. "I don't feel so good…."

"Just rest." I told her, biting back tears. "You gonna… you're gonna be okay." I wished I believed that.

"No. I'm not." She said, her voice hoarse. "I can feel that. This is the end of the line."

"Don't you say that!" I said, holding her hand with both of mine. I felt like I was about to break into a million pieces. "You'll be fine, you'll see."

"I won't." The others hovered a few feet away. This felt like something personal, something only her brother and best friend should see. "I'm sorry I won't be around. I had a lot of junk I still wanted to do." This felt terrible. She had just given up. I couldn't speak. Her voice was getting weaker. "When you're the president, name a statue after me, huh?" She looked over at Percy. "I'm sorry I didn't get to know you better." She glanced over at the others, and for a second that old mischievous light came into her eyes again. "And don't mess this up with Annabeth. You two were meant to be."

She smiled at us both. "Go save the world for me." Then she closed her eyes for the last time.

Then it was all a blur. Percy took my arm, pulling me away. Someone was screaming, and it took me a second to realize that it was me. Tears waterfalled down my face. I wanted to curl up in a ball on the ground and stay there forever.

Because Caspian was gone forever.

**Okay, so I might get some hate for this, so I'm going to give you a couple of spoilers about whats going to happen next chapter. If you want to know how this turns out, continue scrolling down. If not, DON'T SCROLL DOWN. **

**Last chance to turn back. ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT THE SPOILER?**

**OK, here it is:**

**Cas isn't dead. **

**Well she is, but in Tartarus demigods regenerate. Like in a videogame, so yeah. See you next time peeps!**


	15. Chapter 15

**Authors Note: Sorry about the end of the last chapter. All shall be resolved, I promise. I don't own any characters from the PJO or HoO series. I love getting reviews, so if your reading this please leave one for me. Later, F.**

**Ella's POV ~**

I was still screaming, crying, trying to get away from Percy, who had his arms around me from behind trying to pull me away.

"No! Let me go! Let me go, Percy! I swear-"

"She's gone Ella." He said miserably. "We should go."

"Let go of me Percy! She's not dead!" My voice was hoarse.

"She's gone. And you can't bring her back."

I went limp. He let me go and walked away, face in one hand. Annabeth caught up to him and they talked quietly. Piper took my hand and led me away. "I'm sorry." She whispered.

We didn't know what to do with the body. We just left it. And yet, as we laid a tarp (the best we had, out of Leo's toolbelt) over her, and started a fire among the trees, I had the most unnerving feeling that she was alive. Somehow, someway, she was alive.

I walked back to the tarp, and found the bloody dagger on the ground, gold still shining. I set it on top. A marker of the fallen hero. A marker of my fallen friend.

I walked back to camp and sat down. I wanted out of Tartarus. I wanted out of this place.

**Casper's POV ~**

Dying hurt. A lot. Even more then expected. It felt like someone was prying my soul away from my body. I looked down at my body on the ground, surrounded by my friends and family. Then I was flying upward, out of Tartarus, through the underworld, and then I landed in a line, surrounded by other ghosts.

I shuffled along, until there was only one ghost in front of me, and then one. And then I was stepping onto a platform. There were three judges in golden masks, facing me. I didn't have to speak, they just pulled memories out of my head. They hovered in the air, so I could watch.

I saw myself protecting Ella from a bully at school. I saw myself jousting with Percy. I saw myself killing the hydra, helping Leo pull the others out of the burning bus, and fighting the auri. But I also saw things that I had hoped to forget. Killing Aliah, helping her when I was little, and getting in a fistfight at school.

"Varied." The first ghost said. "Much bad, much good."

"There is more bad. Cowardice has pushed her." The second said.

"The good. Saved many lives she has, which should outweigh her mistakes."

"Hey!" I said. "I'm still here. Can I get a say in this?"

"No." They said in unison. "The questioned does not get a say.

"How about me?" A cold voice came from the edge of the platform. "Do I get a say?" The man was chalk pale, and had dark hair and eyes. He reminded me of Nico di Angelo from camp. He wore a dark suit with screaming faces embroidered on it, and everything about him gave me the creeps. "You may go." The three ghost muttered amongst themselves but turned and left, heading towards Elysium.

"Who the Hades are you?" I asked. In my defence, my brain was foggier when I was dead.

He raised an eyebrow. "I am Hades. Do not make me regret saving you."

"Sorry sir. I'll just shut up now."

He didn't smile, though I'm not sure what I was expecting. "Do that. I am here to bring you back."

"Bring me-"

"From the dead, yes. I have had several requests from Olympus to allow you to finish your quest. Depending on how well you do, I may reclaim you. Or not." He raised an eyebrow, and another shiver ran down my spine.

"No pressure." I muttered.

"Good luck. I have a feeling," He held up one hand, and I lifted off the ground. rocketing towards the entrance to Tartarus. His words came to me over the wind as the god of death became a dot in the distance. "That you're going to need it."

I landed in my body, and suddenly I could feel myself again. And for some reason, I was under a tarp.


	16. Chapter 16

**Authors Note: hi, F here. And HA! Cas isn't dead! Boo-ya! Ninja writer, oh yeah! So anyways, I don't own any characters from the PJO or HoO. I love reviews, so please do. **

**to Guest: I don't know about ella and leo, I'm a big fan of leo with calypso.**

**NINJA WRITER, AWAY! **

**Ella's POV ~**

I curled up with my back to the fire. I didn't want to talk to anyone. I stared out into the woods, not really seeing them. I was listening to the others conversation.

"Man, these are good tacos." Jason said with his mouth full. They hadn't said anything about Cas, or our plans for what to do next, and for that I was grateful.

"Thanks, sparky. I try." Leo said.

"Does that tool belt have any hot sauce?" Frank asked.

"Coming right up, big guy."

"Leo." Hazel chastised. "Thats not nice."

"What? Its his nickname, not-"

"Tacos? Can I have one? I'm starving." That voice. It was- "What are you staring at? I'm hungry."

"Cas?" I turned around. It was her. Denim jacket, tousled hair, green eyes. She was just the same. "Is it really you?" I put one hand to my mouth, but I was so happy I felt like I would lift off the ground.

She looked down at herself, kind of puzzled. "Last time I checked."

"It's you!" I leaped to my feet and tackle hugged her.

"Why was I under a tarp? And why is everyone still staring at me?" She asked. "And ow, I think you broke my ribs." I laughed hysterically.

"Your alive! I knew, I just knew you weren't dead!" I blubbered.

"Wait. Back up. Dead?" She now looked _really_ puzzled. "Why would you think I was dead?"

"You don't remember?" I asked, holding her arm so tightly the tips of her fingernails were purple. "What do you remember?"

"I was fighting Auri." She furrowed her eyebrows in concentration. "And then I was in front of some judges, and then there was this guy in a black suit and he said…." She looked troubled, like she had just remembered something unpleasant. "He said that he had had requests from olympus to let me finish the quest."

"Well thats great!" I said desperately, not liking the worried looks on the others faces.

"It could be." Hazel said nervously. "But well, my father never lets souls come back without a price. A deal. What exactly did he say?"

Cas shifted uncomfortably. "He said he was there to bring me back from the dead. Then he said he had several requests to let me finish the quest, as I said. That was it." But she was hiding something. She didn't look any of us in the eyes as she spoke.

"Cas." I said. "What aren't you telling us?"

"Nothing." She said a little too quickly. "Its not important."

"Yes it is." Percy said. "Sis. Maybe we can help." Cas bit her lip.

"He said… he said that if I didn't do well on the quest he would… reclaim me." She stared at her shoes.

"You mean-"

"Yeah." She fidgeted with her necklace. "So anyways. Can I have a taco now?"

"`Course rockslide. Here." Leo handed her a taco and tried to joke, but we were all troubled.

"Thanks. And don't call me rock slide." She said, taking a huge bite out of the taco.

"I like avalanche, boulder, shaky, earthy, and quakey too." He gave her an impish grin.

"Avalanche then." She said. "That sounds less like a bad brand name." They got into an argument about what her nickname should be, while Percy, Annabeth, and Hazel talked quietly. Frank took watch, and everyone else lay down to sleep.

I scooted over to hear what Percy, Annabeth, and Hazel were saying.

"-don't like it." Hazel said. "Sure we have her back, but for how long?"

"We'll find a way to protect her." Percy insisted. "Its only if she doesn't do well. She's been doing great so far, why should we assume he'll have reason to reclaim her?"

"We're not." Annabeth said, taking his hand. "I hate to say it, but we have to just hope for the best this time. Theres nothing we can do." Percy slammed his fist into the ground.

"No!" Annabeth and Hazel recoiled. "I'm sorry, I just…." He ran his free hand through his hair so that it stuck up even more then usual. "I just got a little sister. I don't want to lose her again. How can you say theres nothing we can do? How _can_ you Wise-girl?"

I didn't want to hear this anymore. I felt sick, laying down and closing my eyes. I couldn't believe that Cas might die a second time at the end of this quest. I wouldn't be able to stand that. Her sort of death the first time had made me realize how much I relied on her. I wouldn't be able to keep going without her.

After that year where it was just us, she was like my right arm. We always had each others backs. We fought together, worked together, did everything together all the time. We even had a secret handshake, which was something we had never told anyone else.

"Hey, you awake?" It was Cas. She sat down next to me and I sat up.

"I'm awake." I said. "What is it?"

"Just thinking." She said. "Remember our secret knock?"

"You read my thoughts." I said, smiling a little. "How did it go? Fist bump, twist," We fist bumped then grabbed eachothers wrists, then released, highfived, and stacked both our fists on top of each other. Then we counted to three and threw our hands up. "Hah. Been a while."

We both lay down to sleep, with our backs to each other.

"Goodnight Cas." I said.

"Goodnight El." She said. "Oh, I forgot, do you mind if I call you El?" I laughed.

"No."

"Okay then. Goodnight El."

"Goodnight."


	17. Chapter 17

**Authors Note: don't own any characters from PJO or HoO. Any reviews are appreciated. Onwards and upwards!**

**Casper's POV ~**

We walked quickly through the woods. I had my sword out, and Ella had her bow. We walked side by side. I think that Ella didn't want to get too far away from me, glancing at me every once in a while like to check I was still there.

And she wasn't the only one. Percy was walking right behind me, like to protect me. Those in front of me snuck glances back, like I could collapse at any moment.

I tried to ignore this, gripping my sword and clenching my jaw. I hated to be babied.

It was maybe noon when we nearly walked off a cliff. Well technically, Ella walked off the cliff. The fog had gotten really dark, when Ella let out a groan. "This is nuts, we're walking blind." She walked forward in front of us, waving her hands around in front of her. "Look, see-" She put one foot forward again and toppled forward. I dove and grabbed the back of her shirt, yanking her back in the nick of time.

"Point made." I said, panting. "You can't see."

"This cliff goes on in either direction, I think." Jason said. "Do-do you guys… see that?"

"Yeah." Piper said. "Something down there is glowing." We all grouped as close to the edge as we could. There was a fiery line far below, like a glowing river.

"Its the river Pthle-" Annabeth started.

"Please. Words like that give me headaches. Lets just call it the river of fire. Easier." Leo interrupted. Annabeth glared daggers at him, but he just patted out some sparks in his hair and ignored her.

"Should we try and make our way along the cliff?" Hazel asked. "Or should we climb down and see if the path is easier down there?"

"Climb down." I said immediately. The others cast me cautious looks. I flushed. "I mean, its safer. In this fog its not reasonable to walk along the top when were likely to go right over the edge."

"I agree." Ella said. "Safer to go to the bottom." She rubbed her arms. "Believe me, falling off a cliff is not enjoyable." We started the climb. The rocks were jagged and bit into our hands, and the lower we got the hotter it was. The fog started to clear, too.

"Ow!" I gasped. Blood trickled down my palm. There was a large cut on my hand from a sharp rock. "The Hades." I cursed.

"Are you okay?" Annabeth called up from below.

"Fine. Just cut myself. Its nothing." I called back down and kept climbing.

A half hour later we were only half way down and the heat was intense. "Can we… stop… for a break?" Percy panted. "Really… tired."

"Yeah." I yelled. "I'm exhausted. Lets stop." We all grouped together on a ledge.

"Cas, your hand!" Percy said. "You really cut it." I pulled my hand away and shoved it in my pocket.

"Don't baby me. I'm fine." I said, leaning away.

"I'm not babying you, you're hurt." He said.

"I can take care of myself, Percy. Just `cause I'm your little sister, doesn't mean-"

"I know." He raised his eyebrows at me. "I know you think that I'm just your "big brother" and I don't believe you capable of protecting yourself. I don't think that. I only ever try to help you, and you rarely need that. But you're hurt, and, like it or not, I'm going to help you." He gave me that annoying smile.

"Fine." I held out my hand. "Help, if you insist."

He snorted. "Sure, sis."

By the time we got to the bottom it had been another half hour. The river of fire looked like lava to me, and it was scorching hot. Of course, Leo wasn't affected.

"This is so cool!" Leo said. He crouched next to the river and ran his hand through it.

"That river heals in a way." Annabeth told us. "It will keep us going through Tartarus, though its pretty spicy."

"You mean you have drank from _that_?" Ella asked, flabberghasted. "What's it called again?"

"I think the question is," Percy said. He was standing in front of me, eyes wide, staring at something behind me. He looked terrified. "What is _that_?" He drew his sword. I turned around. There was a…. _Thing_ running towards us along the bank of the river of fire, and it was closing the distance between us fast. It was huge, and it was really weird. It had a lions head, a goats body, and a dragons tail.

The monster roared so fiercely that my hair blew back. I pulled out my spear and aimed it at the monsters neck. I threw with all my might, but the tail whipped up and grabbed it out of the air, snapping it in two. On my necklace, another spear shaped charm shimmered into being. I didn't try that again, pulling out my sword and shield instead.

The others scattered. I could hear Annabeth shouting. "Its a chimera! It was killed by the hero Bellerophon, but I can't remember how!" Percy roared almost as fiercely as the beast and ran forward, bringing his sword across the things snout. Before he could strike, the tail whipped around his arm and wrenched the sword away from him, throwing Percy away a few feet. Percy stumbled but he seemed okay.

The chimera lunged at the closest person: Ella. She couldn't fire her arrows at such close range, throwing her hands up in front of her face in terror.

"No!" I yelled. "BACKOFF ugly!" I threw my dagger at it. It clanged off the back of the chimera's head and it roared in anger and pain. It turned around and advanced on me. I don't know why or how I did it, I just did it by instinct. I raised both hands. Ella told me later that I actually glowed a little, and my hair flew around my head like it was windy. The ground started to shake. I threw my hands to the sides and the ground underneath the monster opened and it fell in, roaring. I closed the top over it and slammed a boulder from the cliff into the ground there for good measure.

"Cas! That was awesome!" Ella yelled as the shaking stopped. I fell to my hands and knees, my ears buzzing. "Are you okay?"

"I'm...fine." I said. "I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" Ella helped me to my feet and we walked back towards the others.

"I'm fine. Lets keep going."

**I realized a few days ago that Cas almost never used her powers anymore so I really wrote this chapter just so she could. Sorry its short.**


	18. Chapter 18

**Author's note: hello, I'm going to make this chapter long because not a lot happened in the last chapter. I also do not own any characters from the PJO or HoO series's. Or is it serieses? I can never remember. Series's, serieses. **

**To guest: I know I said that Ella and Leo wouldn't happen even though i did a little of that in this chapter to make you happy i'm still not going to have them get together. **

**So anyhoo, here's the chapter.**

**Ella's POV ~**

I think I was the only one that was bugged by the smoke from the river. I kept hacking and coughing. "Stupid smoke." I coughed.

"Try some firewater." Annabeth suggested.

"How is drinking fire going to make me feel better Annabeth?" I asked. It seemed a fair question, but Annabeth looked at me like I was nuts. Cas snorted but managed to turn it into a cough so I stomped on her foot. I crouched next to the river while Cas hopped around clutching her foot.

"Ow ow ow!" Cas said.

"Oh hush. I didn't step on you that hard." I told her. I felt like I should be nicer then our usual level of not-so-clever banter, but I had heard her conversation with Percy earlier about not wanting to be babied, so I acted as we usually did. I thrust my hands forward to scoop up some fire, but Leo grabbed my hands.

"Let me first." He said. "It won't burn me." I nodded. He gave me that mischievous smirk that for some reason made my heart skip a beat. _He has a girlfriend._ I reminded myself _He's with Calypso. You can only be friends with him._ And that was good enough. He plunged his hands into the fire and lifted a handful of liquid flames to his mouth.

"How is it?" I asked.

He started hacking and clutching at his throat. "Ah! Oh my _gods_ that stuff is spicy! And hot, really hot!" He spat a little out. "Nasty!"

"Well, I guess I'll just…. No. I'm not putting my hands in that." I folded my arms.

"Here." Leo said kind of awkwardly. He dipped his own hands back in and held out the fire to me. I dipped my head and took a sip of fire. Immediately my eyes started watering. My throat felt like I had just swallowed broken glass and fire, which I pretty much had.

"Gah!" I dry heaved. "That stuff is terrible." He laughed. "Hey, no laughing." I gagged again.

"Come on you two!" Piper called. The others were way ahead down the banks.

"C'mon!" I grabbed Leo's arm and pulled him along with me. I quickly let go as soon as he was up. I reminded myself again that Leo had a girlfriend. We could only be friends.

"So," Cas said. We fell back to walk a bit behind the others. "How about you and Leo?"

"What about? Were just friends." I said defensively. Cas gave me a superior, all-knowing look that was really annoying.

"Yeah right. I may know nothing about relationships, but even I can see that you care about the guy."

"He has a girlfriend, Cas." I looked up at the red clouds. "I just can't."

"I get it." Cas said. "And they seem really happy, too. You can be friends with him of course."

"Yeah. But thats not… perfect." I felt silly, but it was true. I wanted it to be a perfect fairytale where I got the guy I had a crush on.

"Sure. But sometimes almost perfect is as close as it can get." Cas said. "You could also just tell him how you fee-"

"No way!" I said. "That would be mortifying."

"Then maybe you should think about other guys when we get back to camp." Cas advised. "Aphrodite boys are cute, and Athena boys are smart _and_ cute."

"Gods I can't believe us." I said suddenly. "In the middle of Tartarus and we're talking about something totally normal like were just on a summer picnic or something."

"Maybe thats why." Cas said suddenly. I was confused. She explained, "In the middle of Tartarus, maybe we all need some normal."

"You're sounding very wise today."

"Its my natural philosopher." She wiggled her eyebrows at me.

"Oh, shut up."

We slipped back into clever banter. My little chat with Cas had made me feel a lot better, even if I still had no chance with Leo. We would be friends. And the Athena guys _were_ smart and cute.

The crevice came to an abrupt end. The fire river fed down underground from there.

"I guess we have to climb out again." Hazel sighed. "I hate climbing."

"I like climbing. This is gonna be fun." Cas grinned, and grabbed the first boulder, hoisting herself up. "Come on, then!" She called down and we started up.

Almost at the top, disaster struck. My foot slipped, and I lost my grip on the rocks. I would have fallen to my dead, but Cas, who was right above me, snatched one of my wrists.

"Ella, grab the wall!" She panted.

"I can't!"

"Help!" Cas screamed to the others, who were all below us. "I can't hold on!" My hand started slipping through her's. She shifted her grip on the ledge and grasped my hand more tightly. "I'm not going to let go!" She hissed. "Help!" But the others couldn't hear her, over the sound of three drakon attacking them from below.

**Casper's POV ~**

My arms felt like they were being pulled out of their sockets. The hand I was holding onto the ledge felt like it was on fire, but I couldn't let go of Ella. I just couldn't.

"Help us!" I screamed. "I can't hold on!" Far below, the others were jumping off the cliff to fight. We were so much higher then them that, while fighting, they just couldn't hear us.

"They can't hear us." Ella choked. "You're going to have to let me go."

"Never!" I dug my fingernails into her hand. "I won't let you go."

"Perseus Jackson look up now or so help me-" He looked up, and panic registered on his face. But one of the drakons noticed that he was no longer looking at it, and struck, backhanding him into the wall. Annabeth rushed over. Hazel managed to stab it from behind, but things weren't going well with the other two.

"Help!" I screamed, and this time they all heard. "I can't hold on much-" My hand slipped off the ledge. Ella and I fell screaming towards the fiery river below.

I wish I had some epiphany on the way down, but all I was thinking was really, "OH CRAP I'M GONNA DIE." and "OH, I'M FLYING." And then suddenly, two claws grabbed my shoulders. Frank struggled to lift me over to the bank. Jason lifted Ella out of my grip.

They set us down lightly on the bank with the others. They had apparently killed the drakons, because they all rushed over to see if we were okay.

"Oh, ow." I rubbed my shoulder. "Lay off the doughnuts Ella." She stuck her tongue out at me.

"Work on your grip strength, weakling." Ella said.

"Seriously though. Thanks for the save guys." I told Frank and Jason.

"Anytime." Jason said. "I'm just sorry we didn't see you earlier. If we hadn't noticed in time-" He looked kind of embarrassed.

"No harm done." Ella said. "We're all fine."

The climb back up was uneventful. The hand I had cut on the way into the canyon in the first place was now red and swollen. It was no better after my using it to desperately cling to a ledge. I took another drink of the fire water before we set out, but it didn't really help.

Once we were at the top we all collapsed from exhaustion. Ella took first watch.

As soon as I fell asleep, I had a horrible nightmare. I was standing on one side of a huge lake. The water was weird, like it was black and bubbly and gooey. I knew that I had to cross it, but I saw no way but swimming. I reluctantly kicked off my shoes and waded in. I expected to be able to breath as soon as my head went under, but I couldn't breath. I kicked for the surface desperately, but something wrapped around my foot and pulled my down. I couldn't breath. I was going to drown.

A cold voice echoed through the black water. "You have survived thus far little hero. But if I didn't like playing with my food, you never would have made it thus far. Even if you succeed on your fools quest, you shall be reclaimed by Hades. Give up little hero." I was going to die. I couldn't breath. I was seeing spots.

"Cas. Cas, wake up." Ella was shaking me. "Wake up. You were having a nightmare." I opened my eyes. It was still dark, and Ella was leaning over me. Almost all of the bright color was gone from her hair, leaving a light blonde. Her eyes shone in the dark. I could hear the breathing of the others sleeping.

"I'm awake."

"What was your dream about?" She asked I told her. She hesitated, like she was trying to decide whether or not to say something, but then she apparently decided too. "Cas, I had a dream too. In it, I was in a forest…." She told me about her nightmare, and about the warning from Tartarus, _Turn when the lost boy speaks_. She seemed really worried about it.

I sat silently for a while, thinking what to say. "Well," I said. "He was probably bluffing, trying to turn you against us."

"I don't think he was though. And I just had an awful thought." She leaned forwards and whispered. "He can hear us." A shiver ran down my spine. She was right.

"Thanks for sharing that with the class." I whispered, glancing over my shoulder. "Now I'm really creeped." I ran my hands along my arms as if to warm them.

"Sorry." She shrugged. "But who is this "lost boy" do you think?"

"I don't know." I said. I racked my brains, checking my mental archives for any greek stories about lost boys. I couldn't remember anything about a lost boy, but I bet that Annabeth could tell us. I also knew Ella wouldn't want to tell Annabeth, or anyone but me. "I don't think you should worry about it." I told her. "You'll make the right decision when the time comes. I trust you." I wasn't great with emotions, so I hoped I had said the right thing to make her feel better.

"Thanks." She lay down quietly. "Will you take watch? I'm tired."

"Sure. G'night." She didn't respond, and from her soft breathing I could tell she was

asleep already. I was actually a lot more worried then I had let on. I had to be the strong one: If I wasn't then who would be? Ella was my best friend, but we had always taken on two roles. She was the talky in tune diplomat, and I was the tough fighter.

Once when we were in sixth grade, Ella had managed to piss off a group of eighth grade bullies. At lunch we were sitting at our table at the very back corner of the yard, where we were all alone and far out of teachers sight. The group had come over, most likely to beat us up, when I had decided to stand up for us.

"Hey losers!" Tom Green was a huge bulky eighth grader with a freckled face and wiry black hair. He wore a camo winter jacket and torn jeans. He sneered. "Say it again." Ella was pale. "No? Then- get em boys!" Two other bulky guys that looked like they'd been held back several years.

I couldn't just watch this happen. I threw my lunch tray at the back of one's head. He got splattered with pizza, milk, and pudding. "Hey!" He turned around. "Losers! Come fight someone your own size!" The other turned as well.

"Shut up." They growled, and advanced.

I won't go into details, but lets just say that their next destination was the nurse's office. And, of course, mine was detention, but it was worth it.

I glanced down at Ella asleep next to me. Tartarus wouldn't claim us. We would make it out of here. We had to make it out of here.


	19. Chapter 19

**Authors Note: I don't own any characters from PJO or HoO. Hope you like this chapter…**

**Ella's POV ~**

We walked across a wide open field. There was no grass, so maybe it was a plateau not a field. I don't know. The ground was broken black glass, and running underneath that was huge mini rivers like veins, with different colored water in them.

Annabeth pointed out all the different ones. There was one that made you sad, one that made you forget things, one that was glowing red and was definitely the fire river, and others. Percy said that these veins meant we were getting close. The horizon didn't seem any closer to me, but I took his word for it.

Cas looked nervous. "Did you guys feel that?" We all looked at her weirdly.

"Feel what?"

"The ground is shaking. Its getting stronger, and, no, its not me." Then we could all feel it. The ground was shaking, and I realized it wasn't shaking, not exactly anyways. Tartarus was…. laughing.

"This time you shall not escape, little heroes." And suddenly, in front of us, one of the veins burst through the ground. Fire water sprayed everywhere. We ran the other way, but one ruptured behind us, and it definitely wasn't firewater. It was like milk.

"Whatever you do, don't touch that water!" Percy yelled. "Its from the Lethe!" I remembered that the river Lethe was the river of forgetting. Ghosts bathed in it to forget their past lives if they wanted to be reborn.

We scattered. The others went right. Cas and I were about to follow, but she suddenly gasped in pain. Another vein had popped, and as she turned to avoid it she tripped, landing hand on one leg. She gasped in pain. It didn't look good. The fire closed us off from the others. I helped Cas along. From the way she was limping, I could tell it was _really_ bad.

"Circle around." Cas gasped in my ear. "Rejoin the others." Unfortunately, Tartarus had other ideas. Suddenly we were surrounded in the milky water, from the Lethe. Cas leaned into me.

"Maybe we can swim-"

"No!" I hissed. "Don't touch it. Annabeth said it will make you forget your entire life." Cas winced.

"Not good." She said. I saw at the corner of my eye that the others had reached safety. They apparently had only just realized that we weren't with them. Percy was swimming and Jason flying back over to get us, but they would be too late.

**Casper's POV ~**

I don't know what it was, but I suddenly heard a roaring in my ears. The sound of waves on the beach, and I knew what I had to do. I wrapped one arm around Ella, who looked at me like I was a nut.

"What are you doing?"

"You have to hold onto me!" I told her. "Trust me. I think I can-" She hugged me, which actually kind of hurt my leg, but I squeezed my eyes shut and concentrated. As the milky water covered us, I ignored Piper screaming and Percy shouting and Ella sobbing in my ear. I focused on the sound of the waves.

It took a minute for me to realize that we were both still dry. This might sound ridiculous, but I had forgotten about my water abilities. I had known that I could breath, but the dryness had slipped my mind.

I poked Ella. She lifted her head from my shoulder and stared at me, wide eyed despite the water.

"We're dry. Who are you?" I asked. Bubbles rippled out of my mouth, but it was clear she understood what I was saying. "Because I'm 99% sure that my name is Caspian."

"Ella." She mouthed. I grinned.

"Don't let go of me. I'm doing this." She looked surprised, but took my word for it. I kept a tight grip on her hand, and pulled her to the surface. We both gasped for breath and swam towards shore. Actually, it was more like Ella pulled me along while she swam. My leg hurt terribly and it was hard to swim.

"How….The…..Hades did you… do… that?" Ella moaned, rolling on her back.

"Daughter of Poseidon thing." I tried to stand. "Ow! Ow ow ow!"

"Are you two okay?" The others rushed over. "Do you know who you are?"

"I'm Caspian, queen of awesomeness, ruler of all that rules, and that is my friend Ella." Ella waved. "Do you know who you are?" They all nodded.

"But are you okay? Cas, what's with your- oh gods!" Hazel clapped her hands over her mouth. "Cas, your leg- its not supposed to bend that way!"

"Wow, really? I hadn't noticed, thanks." I tried to stand again. "Ow ow ow ow."

"I think your knee is dislocated." Jason said. "I can probably splint it with some wood and tape."

"On it." Leo pulled out a few long straight piece of metal and duct tape out of his toolbelt and gave them to Jason.

"Thanks." Jason said. "Um, Cas, this is going to really hurt."

I held Percy's forearm while Jason splinted my leg. I nearly blacked out from the pain, and held his arm so hard that the tips of Percy's fingers were turning purple by the end. When the spots had finally cleared from my vision and my head stopped swimming, my leg was pointing the right direction again.

The water on the field had drained away. The others were grouped around me, looking worried. "What?" I asked. "Whats wrong?"

"Your leg was bad. You shouldn't stand for a week, much less walk or fight." Jason told me. I rolled my eyes.

"Relax sparky, I'll be fine." I said. "Help me up."

He folded his arms. "No." I nearly laughed.

"Like your going to stop me? Let me up."

"Sis." Percy said. "We've already talked about it, and I think I can use this to get you out." Percy reached in his pocket and pulled out a pearl. I frowned.

"Isn't that that pearl dad gave you? What do you need that for?"

"Its one of Persephone's pearls. Smash it at your feet and you're up in the mortal world. Didn't I tell you that?" I shrugged.

"But you can't just send me back up. I don't want to go, I'll be fine, I can stay and help."

"No you can't." Ella said. I stared at her. Her face was set in an expression I knew. She had made up her mind and she wasn't going to change it.

"Yes, I can. Percy, _get_ that thing away from me." He was holding out the pearl but I pushed his hand down.

"I have to send you back up sis I'm sorry."

"And you all agree with him?" I scanned the faces of the others. I could tell that they all wanted to send me up.

"No." I said. I set my jaw. "I'm not going. I just can't go."

"Why not?" Annabeth asked?

"I just feel it." I said. "I'm supposed to be here. Theres going to be an obstacle down here that only I can face. I have to stay." They were all quiet for a minute, considering that.

"I guess I could make you a cane out of a stick or something." Jason said.

"I can do ya better then wood!" Leo said happily. "I think I have in here…. yes!" He pulled a full sized crutch out of his toolbelt.

"Why on earth- you just carry one of those around with you all the time?" Piper asked.

"Yes, I do, as a matter of fact"

"Woah woah woah." Percy said, holding up his hands in a stop everything gesture. "You are all going to just let her come? It's too dangerous, you can't stay."

"No. Percy, I will fight you for it." I said, holding up a fist. Instead of being intimidated, I could tell he was trying not to laugh.

Percy seemed to be thinking about it. "Oh, all right."

"Yes!" I pumped my fist. "Okay, gimme that crutch."

It was slow going with me on a crutch. We didn't get nearly as far. Monsters attacked twice, and I was completely useless during both fights. I threw my shield at the minotaur, but all that did was nearly get me skewered. We stopped to rest for a few hours, then went on again. Even with the crutches, it really hurt to walk. I didn't want to slow them down too much, so I forged ahead despite the pain. I didn't complain, even though at times I really wanted to too.

It was the next morning that we reached the lake. It stretched out in either direction, and the water was black and gooey and bubbling. It smelled like vomit. It was the lake from my dream. I could still feel the icy water around me, something wrapped around my foot and dragging me down, Tartarus's voice echoing through the water….

"Cas?" Ella asked. "You okay? You look like you're gonna puke."

"Fine." I said. "I just… it really smells."

"I think I'm going to vomit." Annabeth and Hazel said at the same time. I gagged, but that wasn't it. I had the terrible feeling that the obstacle that only I could face: was this lake, or something in this lake.

"I guess we should find some way to cross." Percy said. "It's pretty big, would take too long to go around."

"No." I said a little too quickly. He gave me a puzzled look. "I, um, don't think we should. That lake, I had this dream about it…" I told them about my dream. "I think we should go around."

"It's not like I'm suggesting we swim it. Lets, I dunno, build a raft or something." Percy said.

"Maybe Cas is right." Ella said nervously.

"That water is pretty nasty. And that dream doesn't exactly scream that we should get anywhere close to that water." Piper agreed.

"No, I can sense this kind of thing. It's fine." Percy said, sweeping his hand through the water.

"I can sense this too, Percy, and there is something _really_ wrong with that lake." We had a staring contest. Unfortunately, I'm terrible at staring contests. I blinked, and Percy grinned in triumph.

"Okay, try and pull tree branches down for the raft." Percy told the others. Despite my protests, we were sitting on a raft and pushing out to the center of the lake. I was, to be frank, terrified. I held on to the mast even though that made me feel ridiculous. I was a daughter of Poseidon, I shouldn't have to be afraid of the water, but I kept thinking about the thing that pulled me down in my dream. Something was in this lake, something bad.

"Such a bad idea, such a bad idea, such a bad idea," I whispered. "There's something in the lake, there's something in the lake, there is something in this lake."

"Cas, please, you're freaking me out." Ella said nervously.

"We shouldn't be out here." I said. The shore was distant now. We were all crowded onto the raft. "We should go back and go around, before its too late."

"Relax sis, there's nothing out here." Percy said. "Look, see." He ran his hand through the black water again. "Nothing." That was when I made my fatal mistake. I leaned forward to look in the water, and a saw a grinning face. Then a serpentine fish tail shot out of the water and wrapped around my neck, dragging me under. I felt hands grab at my legs as I was pulled under, but there was no chance as the scales constricted around my throat. I tried to open my eyes but the water stung my eyes and in the dark all I could see was a thing. I didn't know who and what he was at the time. He had bulls horns, and the long scaly tail around my neck was instead of legs. He wore a flowery pink and yellow hawaiian shirt, and sunglasses.

He shot up out of the water, still holding me by the throat, gasping for breath. On deck of the raft, the others scrambled for their weapons. Percy didn't seem to be able to control the lake water. Annabeth shouted something that sounded like, "Oceanus". _Shouldn't it be Lakenus?_ I wanted to ask, but at the moment I couldn't really breathe much less talk. I let out a strangled scream as the monster dragged me underwater again.

"Cas!" Ella screamed. I writhed in the water, and managed to pull out my dagger. The sword and shield charms were underneath the scaly tail. I tried to stab the tail, but it bounced off the scales. The monster, Oceanus, whatever, lifted me out of the water a second time. I gasped for breath. This time the tail unwound and dropped me. I tried desperately to swim to the raft, but the tail wrapped around my ankles, lifting me, and slamming me into the water so hard it felt like concrete.

"Hold on!" Percy shouted, but I knew that they wouldn't be able to help. This was my obstacle to face. And at the moment, between my burning lungs and the throbbing in my knee, the fight wasn't going well. Oceanus slammed me into the water and then under again. This time I managed to pull one foot free, but kicking the tail was not exactly helping.

"Wait!" I screamed under water, and then regretted it because there went the last of my oxegen.

Oceanus lifted me again. I sucked in enough air to say, "You don't want to kill m-" before I was underwater again.

"Why?" Oceanus asked. His voice sounded like a combination of hissing and bubbles in a fish tank. "Why shouldn't I?"

"Because I can help you!" I gasped as Oceanus dangled me upsidedown over the water. The others threw javelins and arrows at Oceanus, but they all bounced harmlessly off. "I can help you get out of Tartarus for good!" He tossed me up, and caught me by wrapping his tail around my neck.

"How?" He hissed. "It is impossible."

"Not for me." I choked. To be honest, I had no idea what I was doing. My mind was racing wildly, scrambling for anything that might convince bull-fish-dude to not kill us. "I'm a daughter of-"

"I know your parentage." Oceanus growled. "That usurper Poseidon! I was here first."

"Yes! You were! I can help you- help you overthrow my father!" I pulled at the tail, trying to loosen it from my neck. It was on too tight. "Do you mind-" He flipped me up into the air and wrapped his tail around my waist. "Thanks. Breathing is, you know, very important to living. And if I die, then you'll never defeat Poseidon." I had no idea what I was doing. I just had to keep him talking until I thought of a way to take him down.

"How can you help me? You are but a child."

"Looks can be deceiving. I know all my fathers weaknesses." I know none. "I have access to his palace." Since when? "And I can steal his trident for you, to rule the seas." I was a terrible thief. These lies were too far fetched. I would give myself away.

"You can?" Oceanus's eyes were hungry. Even though it would have been clear to anyone else on the planet that I _couldn't_, he was so angry and bitter and greedy that he wanted it to be true.

"Of course I can." I said, trying to sound proud. "I can, but only if you let my friends and I go." He seemed to be considering that.

"I see."

"You'll let us go?" I said hopefully. I should have known better; my luck was not that good.

"I will let _you_ go. These others will stay with me." I clenched my jaw.

"Not an option."

"Then no deal." He plunged me under again. This time he pressed me all the way down against the bottom. I needed air, but he didn't seem to want to chat anymore. It was only just then that I had an idea. Of course, it was one of those either going-to-work-really-well ideas or super-dumb-not-going-to-work-ideas. Best I had, though.

With the tail around my waist my necklace was free. Time to test my theory. I pulled off the sword and turned it sideways, jamming the edge under the scales. Oceanus roared and the tail loosened for just a second, long enough for me to drop the sword and slip through the tail loop.

I swam desperately for the surface, breaking through into the stale air of Tartarus.

"Cas!" Ella yelled from the raft, but I didn't try and swim over. I wouldn't make it, but I had to tell her something.

"When Oceanus comes up… under the scales… quickly!" I felt Oceanus's tail around my right ankle. He tossed me high into the air like a rag doll, then caught me by the neck with his huge hands.

"Never use a tail to do hands work." Oceanus hissed. His grip grew tighter and tighter. I couldn't breath, I was seeing spots, my lungs felt like they were on fire….

**Ella's POV ~**

As Oceanus started to strangle Cas, I pulled three arrows tight and fired them all at the same time into the Titans chest. While he looked at me, Jason flew around behind and jammed his sword under the scales in his tail. Oceanus roared in pain and dropped Cas. Percy swam over and towed her to the raft. Once Jason landed he summoned a huge burst of wind that threw the entire raft out of the lake and sideways into the forest.

"Nooo!" Oceanus roared in anger in the lake. The lake water geysered upwards thirty feet then back into the lake without spilling a drop. I was fine, so I scrambled over to Cas. It didn't look good. Her eyes were shut, she was pale, and she wasn't moving.

"Cas? Cas? Wake up, please." I whispered. I remembered something about CPR from gym class, but mostly I had spent gym class doodling on my hands and ignoring the teacher, so not much. I bounced on her chest and blew into her lungs, but she still wasn't moving. "Wake up, please, Cas." I was actually getting mad. At Cas, at Oceanus, and at myself. "Don't leave!" I threw my entire weight into my hands and Cas's eyes flew open. She rolled on her stomach and spat out black water, gasping for breath. "Are you okay?"

"Stupid….damn...fish bull..." She gasped.

"Your okay."


	20. Chapter 20

**Authors Note: hi, F here, and I just want to say thanks for everyone who has followed or favorited or reviewed my stories. I really appreciate it. I don't own any characters from the PJO or HoO series that you may recognize in the story. Ta-da!**

**Ella's POV ~**

"Told you so." Cas said for the millionth time. "I _told_ you so."

"Yes! We get it, you were right." I threw my hands up in the air. "Now please stop, I can't take any more of this."

"Geez, okay." Cas said. "But I did tell you so."

"Sis." Percy, who was walking ahead of us, turned around and raised his eyebrows at her. "Shut up." Cas mimed locking her lips with a key and then threw the key over her shoulder.

"Hows your leg, Casper?" Annabeth asked.

"Not that bad." Cas said, even though she was limping and winced a tiny bit with each step.

"Oh, good." Annabeth said, though she didn't sound convinced. "We'll be there soon. You'll need to be able to fight. No telling what Tartarus will throw at us this time." She sped up a little to walk with Percy.

"Great pep talk." Cas mumbled, so quietly she clearly thought no one could hear her. I giggled under my hand.

In another hour, Piper and Leo called for break, and I was glad. A rest was just what I needed. We were getting so close to the heart of Tartarus that it was at least seventy degrees, and we wouldn't stop again before we got there. All that was between us and it was a big hill, or a tiny mountain.

My hands and knees were scraped, my back and feet hurt, and I was really dirty. No doubt I smelled. I hadn't showered since back at camp, and that had been….what? A week? Two weeks? I couldn't even remember.

Cas groaned as she sat down stiffly and rubbed her eyes with the palms of her hands. She too was dirty, her black hair pulled up in a messy ponytail. There was still a cloth wrapped around her hand where she had cut it, and I was worried about her knee.

I plopped down next to her. "You ready for this?" She asked.

"Not even. I keep thinking about that 'lost boy' thats supposed to turn me. We're almost going to finish the quest, and he hasn't shown up yet. What if he comes and messes me up in this big fight against Tartarus?" Cas was quiet for a long time.

"I trust you, Ella. We'll be fine. So will you." Then she closed her eyes and started snoring.

I was too tired to even roll my eyes. I lay down too, and was just about to fall asleep when Annabeth shook my shoulder. "Time to go." I moaned and clambered to my feet again, pulling Cas up with me.

"Five more minutes…" She mumbled. I pinched her. I know it was rude, but I was exhausted and grumpy. "Ow! Thanks a lot. What was that for?" She asked, pulling away and rubbing her arm.

"We have to go." I said crisply. "Just get up."

**Casper's POV ~**

Ella stomped off. I mouthed to Percy from behind her back, _What did I do?_, but he just shrugged helplessly at me. He mouthed back, _How should I know?_ and held his hands up in a "I've got nothing" gesture.

I sighed and we started up the hill. We lay at a hillock at the top and looked down onto the plains. It wasn't looking like I expected. There was a small army of cyclopes, drakons, and a couple of hydras. Standing on a boulder platform was a boy that I couldn't quite make out from here, and a huge terrible thing. It was fifty feet tall, and a dark earthy black. Instead of a face it had a sucking vortex like pit, pulling on the center of my vision slightly, drawing my eyes towards it.

It was Tartarus.

I might have muttered something a little stronger than "Hades" at this point. "How in the wide wide underworld do we fight that thing?" I whispered. "And who is that kid with him?" Next to me, Ella had gone stiff. I twisted to look at her, and her eyes were wide, mouth open, face pale. She was shaky like she was going to vomit, and her fingers were digging into the dirt. She stared at the boy. "El?" I asked, poking her arm. "Who is he?" She reached, trembling, into her pocket, and pulled out a photograph.

It was old, and in the picture I saw a younger Ella with an arm around a boy her age. They were both laughing at the camera and the boy was waving at someone to the left. He looked creepily like her, with the same light blonde hair (streaked with hot pink, the same color of Ella's in the photograph) and similar features. Written in Ella's handwriting on the back were the words, '_June 19. Eighth birthday party_'.

"Ella," Annabeth said. "Who is the boy in this picture, and why does he look so much like you?" Ella was shaking violently, her hands over her mouth. She closed her eyes and waited for a moment before she spoke.

"Thats my twin brother, Biron."

We all stared at her. I felt like my brain had exploded. Ella had a twin brother that she had never told me about? Why? Why was he with Tartarus? And why was Ella so shocked to see him down here (other than the obvious I mean)?

The others looked as thunderstruck as I was. I looked at the picture, then back up at Ella, then down again.

"You're serious?" Piper asked. Ella nodded, eyes still closed.

"Why did you never tell us about him?" My voice sounded hoarse and sad even to me. I didn't say, "Why did you never tell me" but it was implied. She looked up at me, eyes brimming with tears.

"I thought he was dead." She said. "I thought he died four years ago." We didn't say anything, so she continued, staring at the photo sadly. I knew that valuable time was slipping away, and that we needed to face Tartarus sooner rather than later, but I wanted to hear this.

"When I was eight, a few days after that birthday, my mom disappeared. I still don't know what happened to her, but one day I woke up and she was gone."

"I already know all of this." I interrupted. "What about your brother?"

"When mom...went away…" Her voice broke. "Biron ran away from the orphanage. A lawyer came a week later and said-said that Biron was-" Ella broke down in tears. I hugged her with one arm and she pulled herself together. Wiping her face on her sleeve, she continued. "And I believed him. I believed him that the police found his body. I never looked for him. And there he is." She pointed a shaky finger at the boy beside Tartarus.

"Are you sure its him?" Percy asked. "Its hard to see from up here."

"Part of his hair is green and I saw him tweak a cyclopses nose." She laughed tearily. "I'm sure its him." Suddenly she gasped like she had just realized something. "Cas, my dream! The lost boy!" The realization hit me like a train.

"But if the lost boy is going to speak for Tartarus then-"

"He would never-"

"Its been a while Ella! You don't know what he would or wouldn't-"

"Hey!" Jason hissed. "What the Hades are you two talking about? What lost boy, and why is he going to speak for Tartarus?" We quickly explained about Ella's dream. Suddenly, over the hill, a roar went through the crowd of monsters. We scrambled over to the top again to see that the monster that was Tartarus was slowly rising upwards. He was already ten feet over the ground, rising towards the ceiling. Biron, Ella's twin, stood underneath him, with his head tilted up and his arms upraised. Swirling purple and green mist rose from his hands and around Tartarus's feet, lifting Tartarus highed. The monsters cheered and cackled, and Tartarus roared with approval every time the light from Biron pushed him a little bit higher.

"Biron!" Suddenly Ella was flying past me down the hill. "Stop it! Stop it now!" She sounded like a five-year-old fighting with her brother. Biron didn't turn, but the monsters did.

"Oh Hades." I whispered. I drew my sword, as did the others, and we barrelled after Ella.


	21. Chapter 21

**Authors Note: Ah! Ella has a brother! I didn't think that one up until the very paragraph where he comes in. I love reviews, and I don't any characters from uncle Ricky, etc. etc. FOR NARNIA!**

**Caspian's POV ~**

I spun sideways, and slashed my sword across a drakons throught, stabbing a cyclops behind me with my dagger at the same time. All around me, the others were putting up a brave fight against the hordes of monsters that surrounded us. In Tartarus, it only took a minute for them to reform. I stabbed the same cyclops I had just killed and ducked under a hydra's head, and rolled sideways to avoid a thrown boulder. I jumped over a drakon's head, and brought my sword down behind me, slicing the monster in half as I landed on my feet, still running.

I skidded to a stop next to Ella. She had managed to weave through the fighting and was standing next to Biron. She held one of his arms and was putting her full weight into it, but it wouldn't budge. His eye's were glassy and he couldn't see or hear us. "Biron, please, stop, you'll lift him right out of the underworld." She pleaded.

"He can't hear you." I know it was probably stupid, but I reached a hand forward into the light. It burned me, and I snatched my hand back immediately. "Ow!" I hissed, and I suddenly had an idea. "Knock him out." Ella looked like she was betrayed.

"Why would you-"

"Its the only way to get him to stop." I said. I knew she would never agree, so I brought the hilt of my sword down on his head before she could do a thing. His vivid green eyes, so much like his sisters, rolled up into his head and he crumpled.

The light was still floating from his body. Tartarus shot upwards like a bullet, and out of sight. He was in the mortal world now. As soon as Tartarus was gone, the light faded, but he was still unconscious. It was the sword's fault, not me.

Around me, fighting ceased. Monsters were retreating in every direction. The final battle was over.


	22. Chapter 22

**Authors note: blah blah blah, all the usual. sorry the last one was short. dont own the characters, please review, etc. etc. etc.**

**To silverwolvesarecool: I just wanted to say-I really appreciate all the reviews that you give me. Very motivational!**

**To Guest "me": I know my prophecies are weird. I'm terrible at writing prophecies.**

**To All Other Followers or Favorite-rs: Thanks so much!**

**Caspian's POV ~**

We stood in the plains in devastated silence. Tartarus was gone, but Ella had her brother back. And we were all troubled by what had happened after the battle…

It was just a minute after the monsters left, when Biron gasped like a drowning man. "Biron!" Ella had gasped. She grabbed his arm. Biron's mouth opened, and the purple and green mist floated out of his mouth. A booming hoarse voice echoed through his mouth, but it got louder and quieter like it wasn't settled in its own body. It wasn't Biron talking, and his eyes stayed shut.

"You had a good run, little heros." The voice boomed. Ella fell backwards, and Leo caught her, which made Ella blush bright red despite the severity of the moment. "But you have failed. I am alive in your world, and this boy is dying. He was loaned to me by his patron, and now you can keep him. But remember this, Aello." Aello was Ella's real name. "You will have a place in my army always. Will you join me? I could give you your brother. I could give you safety. I could give you anything and everything you have ever wanted."

For one terrifying second, I thought Ella might say yes. There was a longing in her eyes that scared me.

"Get the Hades out of my brother." She growled, and swatted her hand through the fog, which instantly dissipated.

Now we stood around Biron, trying to think what to do next. I could tell a lot about a person from their appearance. It was a skill I had picked up while working for Aliah. Biron had been through dark times, I could tell. But he was still a good person, even though he had helped Tartarus.

Ella had been right. There was a streak of bright green on the left side of his head, and his blond hair went to his earlobes. He wore dirty jeans, scuffed sneakers with a missing sole on the right side, a black t-shirt, and a dark green unzipped hoodie.

"I thought you would be halfway out of Tartarus by now." A cold voice came from behind me. I spun around so fast I almost got whiplash. The same tall man in a black suit that had called himself Hades and let me live before stood there. "But seeing as this is not the case, I thought I would come help."

"You're going to get us out of Tartarus?" I asked.

"Yes. Including you. I have decided that you may live." A huge weight lifted off my chest as I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thank you." I said. "Thank you so much."

"However, I can only transport nine of you." He said. I quickly counted mentally. There was ten of us, counting Biron. I glances at the others. Which one of us would be the one to stay? "But my brother has already taken care of that. The pearl." He said to Percy. Then there was a flash of light, and were standing in front of the campfire, surrounded by the campers, who were halfway through a song about their grandma getting dressed for war.

A second later, Percy appeared next to me in a little puff of smoke. The campers all gaped at us. "Hi." I waved at them awkwardly. "We're back."

**Ella's POV~**

The next hour was a blur. All the campers wanted to know what had happened. The other Apollo campers, however, would have none of it, and carried us all off to the infirmary. I insisted on staying with Biron. They re-wrapped Cas's leg. She insisted that she was fine, and tried to run out of the infirmary, but a couple of my siblings held her down while they splinted it.

Chiron assured me that Biron would be fine. I had only a few cuts and bruises. My siblings made Cas swear on river Styx that she would stay in the infirmary for three days. She was actually much more injured then she had let on, and I felt bad for being so wrapped up in my own problems that I hadn't noticed all her injuries. She had a cut on her shoulder and hand, a burn on one arm, a big bruise on one shin, and, of course, her knee.

She was soon snoring away in the bed next to Biron's, so that I could keep an eye on both of them. All the others went to their separate cabins, and Chiron came in once in a while to check on us. I wondered what Biron would say when he woke up. I wondered what happened to him four years ago, and who the man was that had told me he was dead.

The next day, Biron woke up.

He sat up, looking dazed and confused. "What…" My head snapped up from the book I was reading. He was holding his head like it hurt, which it probably did. "Where am I?" He focused on me. "Ellie?" That was what he had always called me. "Is that you?"

"It's me. I thought you were dead." Suddenly I was crying, and he was crying, and we were hugging, and Cas was calling for Chiron.

"I thought _you_ were dead." He choked.

I'll spare you the details, but eventually Chiron arrived and Biron told his story.

The day he left, he hadn't run away as I had always thought. He had gone for a walk, and had found himself at a little park, all alone. There, a police car had picked him up. A man had picked him up at the station and said that there had been an accident, and that I was dead. The man said that it was no longer safe at the orphanage, and he would take Biron to a safe place.

The man had taken Biron to Hecate.

"Woah woah woah." I held up my hands. "_Hecate_? She did this? She took you and said I was dead and told me you were dead? This was all _her_?" He nodded, and continued.

Hecate had taught him magic, and told him all about the gods being real. He had lived with her until a month ago, when she had given him to Tartarus. He hadn't wanted to help, he said, but Hecate hadn't given him a choice.

"And you know the rest." He finished.

"It'll be okay now." I said, crossing my legs. I was sitting in a old-lady rocking chair next to his bed. "You're here. It'll be okay." Cas nodded.

"Yeah. We have the coolest rock climbing wall ever."

"Hey!" Will Solace called from the door of the infirmary. "Back in bed, Casper! Or I get my bow!" Cas jumped and scrambled back into her bed. Biron and I snorted at the exact same time, the way we did when we were little.

"Casper, who's your immortal parent?" Biron asked.

"Poseidon."

"So are you, like, a really good surfer?" I nearly choked.

"Oh no. Thats more my brother Percy. I only do earthquakes." It took a while to explain that, and then the others came in, and there was introductions to be made. Then I took Biron to the Apollo cabin and he had to be introduced to all his new half siblings.

After dinner, I left Biron at the cabin and Cas and I met up with the others and went to the big house to talk with Chiron.

"Tartarus is in the mortal world." Chiron said. "The final war has only just begun."

**This is the end of book one of Caspian! Look for "Caspian, Book Two: The Battle Of Echidna" if you want the second book. It may not be out for a week or more though, because I'm not sure what it should be about. WOW! I WROTE A BOOK! Sorry, just had to get that out of my system. But wow! Goodbye my loyal readers, I shall see you once more in book two. And - ONWARDS! **


	23. Chapter 23

p id="docs-internal-guid-f813376b-2620-f0bd-1d21-34c965c7eff6" dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"Okay, I've published the first few chapters of 'Caspian Book Two: The Battle of Echidna'. please check it out./span/p 


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